Communication

It is not her quavering voice you hear
but her timorous plaintiveness can be
heard nonetheless as you read the
message sent electronically from your
old friend. Old in the sense that you
have known one another since your teen
years 65 years ago, and old is also what
she -- and you now are. She laments
that her family is so dispersed, few
grandchildren close by but her siblings
and extended family gone, some now
living abroad others no longer living
and how she would like to see them all.
Now, because it seems to her that little
time is left for she recalls her older
sister's dementia and fears she herself
no longer remembers names and depends
on notes she writes to herself. Getting
around is miserable now she no longer
drives and the weather has been too
inclement to get out with her walker.
And you sigh, and write back that 
lapses in memory plague everyone and
your own mother had frontal lobe
dementia, and you urge her to get out
more, socialize, find a hobby, get
involved to tease her body and brain
to action. Your eyes strain to read the 
screen but you know how to enlarge
the characters and isn't technology just
wonderful? An alternative to speaking
on the telephone since you live in
different cities, and since your hearing
is impaired, and you send the email.