This was our family home.  I am the fifth born daughter of Oglesby and Madeline Basham.  Here's where we lived when my twin brother, Alcoy, was killed in a farm tractor accident when we were 16 years old.

After graduating high school, there was a happy time of living in Roanoke with the Littons, who were like parents to me, I worked at a mill job and traveled by bus back to this home almost every weekend.  Then ---

You live your life, busy, tired at the end of the day, only to wake in the morning to begin all over again.

You get married, start your business, buy a house, have your babies.  You enjoy holidays and birthdays.  You travel.  You honor your parents and choose a church which you will attend for 40 years.  You lose your parents and family members.

Then one day you lose your mate, and you're alone.  Alone with a business you cannot manage alone.  So you sell it.  Then there are the house and grounds; too much to keep up alone.  So you sell it.  And you enjoy the freedom an apartment brings for several years.

Then, one day, you're confused.  You call for help and later on, you can't remember the three days you spent in the hospital.  The doctor diagnoses Alzheimers.  MRI's indicate mini strokes.

Slowly, day after day, memories fade.  Medical emergencies happen.  Long story short, now I'm wheelchair bound and in a nursing home in Roanoke.

My children visit me every day, making sure I'm nourished and hydrated so I don't end up dehydrated and in the hospital again.

Sometimes I know my visitors; sometimes I don't.  Give me a chance to recognize you.  Staying engaged is stimulating and mentally very healthy for me.  Your visits help with that.  Come see me.