February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day





”It’s a wonderful life,” indeed. Sketch of George, 1990. My Valentine.






Duck: Physically better, mentally gone. He always has shaken to one degree or another, and much is probably due to the brain damage from a suicide attempt in the 1970’s. Ditto stuttering. His doc has him on a low level med for the shaking that may need to be upped over time.

Me: Pretty good. Only one spot burned off me nose. Hip awful. Oh well. Woke at 0400 thinking again. Thinking isn’t good at 4.

G: Unprintably wonderful. My Valentine.
We came up the walk and he was waiting, waving at us from the windows in the front.

“Oh, it’s so exciting,” he began. “My parents are here.” His hands were fluttering like a moth to a light. His smile was bright, delighted, engaged. His excitement contagious.

“I laid down for a nap, and my parents came. The young man didn’t want to wake me. Oh, I hope they will be ok with him.”

I just sat riveted, chilled and cold, listening to him. G saw his hands flutter and went to talk with the charge nurse about his shaking. I listened wishing G would hurry back so I wouldn’t be so all alone. So selfish of me. So small.

We took him into dinner and he continued his animated talking. From across the table, Allie shook her head. “Trains and ocean liners this morning,” she told me sotto voice.

“More water,” I said turning to Duck, “You have to drink more water.” Dehydration increases his hallucinations every time.

“How old are your parents?” G was asking Duck. “How old are you?”

“I was just going to ask you that,” Duck answered.

“You are 82.”

There was a very long pause. “My parents are old.” And another long silence. “I hope they get home to Whitewater OK.”

His shaking is less.

4 comments:

  1. Happy Valentine's Day to you, Mage. I am so glad that I randomly clicked on Ronni's blogroll and found you and G. and, of course, Duck.

    This is the type of story you could put in Ronni's storytelling corner. Don't you think? You might have to explain who G. and Duck are, but otherwise, I think the incident is very poignant.

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  2. Oh, Mage. My heart goes out to you. My mother used to see her parents, then she would tell my father he was the nice man who took care of her, but not her Morrie. She didn't know me at all. It was very hard to deal with; my father never quite got over it.

    Hope you have a great Valentine's Day with G. He sounds terrific.

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  3. Happy V day! I just read the last few posts about Duck. I have been busy and not keeping up with my reads. He sounds a bit better, but how scary and sad to think of what changes could occur day to day. You are a good friend to him, remember that.

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  4. "Will there be any stars in my crown?" Have you ever heard of that song? Well, I suspect that you and G will have a crown full of stars...and Duck, too, will surely have his fair share. I know he's been a good friend to you in the past...
    It's hard to watch people you love go downhill, isn't it? I'm thinking of you for what it's worth.

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