Friday, August 4, 2023

Inconsequential


You've known her as a neighbour for decades

a down-the-street neighbour married to a much 

older man who left his wife and two children for her. 

And as he aged and became infirm foreign travel

beckoned time and again, he to remain in situ she 

to explore the world as a tourist for whom nothing 

and nowhere should be unfamiliar. When he could 

no longer care for himself following surgeries to 

sustain life, time came to move into an end-of-life 

hospice where dementia moved in with him and 

she who demurred at any personal sacrifice of time 

and energy blithely informed the street he had died 

while she was on a trip to Greece. This latest trip 

was to Tuktoyaktuk, NWT and on  her return 

up close and personal to show you photos she suddenly 

yelped !oh! and moved well back. The memento 

of that trip was a COVID infection and while she is 

duly medicated it slipped her mind she is also infectious. 

She always said she intended to age as gracefully 

as you and now near 90 you may not, after all.


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