puzzles

Since she retired and was diagnosed with AD, jigsaw puzzles have been big in Miriam's life.

She was not fast at putting them together, but she worked with the same resolve she has worked at other things in her lifetime. Stubborn, yes, but this is the upside, I think.

Daughter 1 gave her a very nice 1000 piece puzzle for Christmas. Miriam worked diligently on getting it together. She would do little else all day, putting in 9 or 10 or more hours a day.

But it got together eventually.

A week or so ago she began a smaller one. 500 pieces and smaller in size as well. However that meant that the pieces are smaller, sometimes a good bit smaller.

To begin with she would work on the puzzles in what was her studio. But winter made that space hard to heat and she is not warm blooded by any measure. I suggested she set up a card table in our smallish living room and work there. She refused, but I persisted.

I came in from the shop last night and the table was gone. She said she was tired of working on the puzzle and put it away.

There is no way I will scold her, I would have burned the whole thing about 3 hours into the project. I am more like the commercial photographer I read about many years ago. He said he had 45 minutes of patience, and if a project could not be done in 45 minutes he would take 6 months figuring out a way to do it in 45 minutes.

He had me figured out, except for the 6 month part.

But not my Miriam.