Of signs and symptoms

(In Pam's words)

"I first began to notice that something was not quite right with David in early April. I had been back at work for a month after some medical/surgical complications of my own. I had not worked for over 3 months and David took such good care of me during that time. He did everything for me; cooking, cleaning, making sure I was comfortable, as well as working his normal occupation. After I went back to work, he began to be a little socially withdrawn. He was not as talkative as usual. After a little more time went by, he seemed to be depressed. Depression is so out of character for David! As most of you know, he is an outgoing, witty man. I asked him about it, but he said he was not depressed. David would still get up in the mornings and have his quiet time with the Lord but it seemed that the joy had gone out of his life. On occasion, after we would talk about things, he would rouse himself and be more "normal" for a day or so. This went on for about a month.

I told no one except the Lord. I didn't know at the time, but Lydia and Rich (our oldest daughter and her husband) had also noticed that something was "off" about David. Our son Philip, was a little confused after a phone conversation he had with David. Both Lydia and Philip thought something might be wrong but it was so subtle they weren't sure and didn't ask me. In early May, people at church started noticing and asking me about David. His teaching had lost its passion. He seemed to have difficulty in gathering his thoughts and often went over his time allowance. For those that know David and have heard him teach and preach, you know that he has always been "quick on his feet," quick to answer questions and refer someone to particular verses in the Bible and quick to come up with a story that relates to a situation. He was now lacking all of this.

Then his music began to suffer. David has played the piano for over 50 years. This is not something one forgets! He leads the worship at our church and practices with the worship team weekly. Practice soon became disorganized and David was unable to answer musical questions quickly. He would be playing a piece of music and hit the wrong notes. Practice would start late, because David seemed to no longer have a real concept of time. We were late to church several times, something that has never happened with us! Again, this was so out of character for David, this was not the man I knew so well after nearly 36 years of marriage. I was really very worried and prayed and cried out to the Lord constantly."

Psalm 18:6 In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry for help before Him came into His ears.

...to be continued