It’s easy when it’s only a few minutes
Friday October 26th 2012, 10:54 pm
Filed under: Life

We went to hear the St Michael Trio perform at Stanford tonight.

Always a good time. Always a lot of old friends to run into who go, too.

We were talking to some of them when a very short elderly woman intervened, wanting our attention as if she knew us. Oh okay. The concert had ended and there were a lot of people talking in the foyer at once; the sound now was an impossible cacophony of joy.

Richard was paying attention, but more and more she focused on me as a sympathetic soul as she told her tale I couldn’t hear. I finally realized she was talking about the death of –somebody, through a major medical error–I caught the bit about the needle through the windpipe as Richard winced.

All of it said perfectly straightforwardly, even cheerfully, glad to share the news with old friends who would want to know. Richard told me later she was talking about her mother–who would have had to have been well into her hundreds if the story were new.

We had not the slightest clue who she was.

And then her middle-aged what I took to be her son found her and anxiously pulled her away from us, sorry to have bothered us.

No, no, really, I found myself wanting to tell him as they disappeared quickly into the night; I’m glad we were able to be an audience when she needed one for a few minutes and I’m glad she got to put on her best and have her hair done and go out and enjoy a good concert. I hope someday when I’m old and perhaps bonkers someone is patient enough to listen to me, too. To be with me.


5 Comments so far
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My great aunts – on both sides – had Alzheimer’s. Some stories were fun to hear over and over. Then there was the time we found one aunt walking the road, calling out for a dog whose name was unfamiliar to me… The dog had been her pet some 40 years prior.

Thank you for being patient and kind. We all need more of that, senile, bonkers or not.

Comment by Channon 10.27.12 @ 3:29 am

You must have the patience of Jobs (and I don’t mean Steve).

Comment by Don Meyer 10.27.12 @ 9:55 am

What a gift, for both of you :-}

Comment by Diana Troldahl 10.27.12 @ 4:41 pm

I wonder if we will keep our wits about us sufficiently to keep blogging. Then we can tell all the stories we want!

Comment by twinsetellen 10.27.12 @ 8:18 pm

Bless your heart for taking it like that!

My grandfather always said that what goes around, comes around. 😉

Comment by Suzanne from Montreal 10.28.12 @ 7:39 pm



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