On June 9, 2019, I wrote, and posted, this:
Our speech is still sprinkled with Spanish,
I still drink ma-te every day,
but we are here,
and this is home.
I illustrated it with this photo:
It was about a week after we had moved into our home in Hudson, Florida. Sandy knew that she had a lump in her breast, and hoped it was just a cyst. She hadn't told me about it. Three months later we got the definitive diagnosis: it was not a cyst. Sandy had great cancer care, and in the end it was not cancer, but heart and respiratory problems that took her.
I love this photo because in it we see Sandy looking out at the trees in exactly the same way that she used to look out at the ocean in Aguas Dulces, sitting on the deck with our dog. Even Betty's posture is the same.
I still drink ma-te every day,
but Sandy is gone,
and that house is gone,
and I cannot bear life
in this senior facility
without her.
So I am going back,
I am going back to the place
that was, for us,
a kinder home.
Text and image Copyright © 2024 by Donald C. Traxler.
