"I feel like I'm dying, but I'm not exactly breaking new ground here. Someone in my family is always dying."
........
" We've just finished supper. Eileen has our mother on a three-day visit from the nursing home. I keep calling it parole."
........
"Aunt Mary's legs were swollen up like two balloons." Eileen's voice is schoolmarm taut. "She couldn't catch her breath, and when we took her to the E.R., they gave her morphine right away, and six different kinds of medicine, and I said to the doctor, 'Does this mean you're trying everything?' and he said, 'Yes.'"
The Aunt Mary in question is 97.
"She is good," said Jennifer. "What's the book again?"
"This Road Will Take Us Closer To The Moon," said Troy. "It's a book of short stories. This story is Baby Doll."
"Kind of reminds me, the stuff about people always dying, of Flight Behavior and the climate change causing all the extinction of various species," said Jennifer.
"Birth and death: it's the cycle of life, right?" said Troy.
"When it's natural, yes, but how about when it's deliberately caused by human selfishness? Then it's evil, isn't it? Not just the natural cycle of life," said Jennifer.
"Yeah, I guess so. It's a good point," said Troy.
"And when it comes to Mother Nature, I don't think we are trying everything like Eileen wants the doctor to do for Aunt Mary," said Jennifer.
"A lot of people, half of the freaking population in the country, don't want to admit that things are even sick," said Troy, "so how can they be trying everything when they don't even know or want to admit there's a problem?"
"What we need is Eileen," said Jennifer laughing. "She sounds a bit like a control freak who's willing to kick some butt to save her elderly aunt. How about if someone like Eileen was around to save our elderly planet?"
"We'd have to have a lot of Eileens," said Troy. "How about you?"
"What do you mean?" said Jennifer.
"Well you're a bit of a control freak and you care about the planet, don't you? said Troy laughing.
Eileen reminds me of my Aunt Edna. She was a kind lady but also a tough old bird. She had her opinions and walked the talk. We need people like Eileen and Edna, opinionated, and off putting sometimes but with their heart in the right place they get things done and lead the way for the more faint of heart.
ReplyDelete