Along with this:
Dear Vicks:
I have a bad cold and dragged myself over to Von's for Day-Quil. It took me 20 minutes and several tools to destroy the damn lid and get it off. I know you're supposed to just squeeze and turn, but IT DOESN'T WORK unless you're 25-year-old bodybuilder!
Sincerely, A Never-Again Former Customer
Oh, I was just amusing myself--bored to death. I took the stuff, of course, and it may or may not have been any better than what I had before, but I expected to feel better today and I do.
Aside from that, I didn't do much at all productive. Got up late--7:30--and breakfasted late, reading the paper and doing my good ol' crossword. Spent a lot of time on this computer, just looking up various non-consequential things and playing a few games.
I did take the trash and recycle out, plus did some food prep, preparing broccoli and an acorn squash. Also, I had two huge onions and used my devices (not those kinds of devices!) to chop one and shred the other, then stow them in the freezer. (I like to have some things prepared, so I can make my mostly plant dinner in a hurry.)
Betty called, wanting to know if I was coming to SB for the Eagles game broadcast. No, and I never intended to, as, if she was in her right mind, she would have known. She was very disappointed because neither Carolyn nor Steve were able to make it. It seems the game wasn't on TV, only at a bar in SB, where they've gone before (Carolyn's husband is also a big Eagles fan, native Californian though he is). Betty got an Eagles shirt for our birthday and she was so anxious to wear that to the gathering. It broke my heart to hear that. She's now much like a child, so eager for attention and applause. She must have envisioned the crowd making a big fuss over her in that shirt.
I remember a writer named Jim Bishop (The Day Christ Died, The Day Lincoln Was Shot, etc.), who was well-known in Catholic circles. He was no Nabokov, but something he wrote stuck in my mind: It seems his wife had sunk into a kind of dementia. He described experiences with her, then noted something like, "she has become our little girl."
Yes.
3 comments:
Rosemary,
I share your frustration with opening many bottles sealed with plastic designed to never be removed by anyone. I lost my box cutter and just replaced it for such situations.
I think Bishop's description of his wife's dementia is beautiful. It makes it easier to deal with those so afflicted. We many times want them to be who they were and they will never be, but we can love them with this perspective. I will use this myself. Thanks for remembering it and sharing it.
Pat, a lot of people who commented on FB mentioned that you can ask the pharmacist for a non-childproof cap. Did you know that? I didn't. I assume it's so in Jersey, too.
As for the "little girl" thing: Bishop actually wrote it as a deeply felt expression of grief and loss. Frankly, I feel the same way. I don't want a little girl as a twin sister; I want the mature woman I've known for 83 years. Oh, I know I have to accept the change--I have no choice. But I don't do it willingly or with any sense of relief. I hate and despise what's happening to her and always will.
Rosemary,
Yes I know about non childproof caps but they are for prescription meds. I've never seen any easy to open OTC bottles. Something for the industry to work on.
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