Gaps, patches and in-betweens

She’s making the house nice. But no one really is in a hurry to get home. She is disappointed. She likes to be surrounded by people and hates being alone. I am the opposite. I love my privacy and solitude. Maybe that’s why she is more loved, called upon, and will be missed and remembered when gone. I will probably have a smattering of warm bodies. Lucky if they would even make the effort. Hers would. I could see them going through mountains and hurricanes just to pay their respects. They would walk if there are no flights.   My lot would probably wait out the drama, if any, light a candle, pour wine and fondly think about the good and the bad times, wherever they are. Like what I do now. I would probably have the undertaker and the staff at the funeral home, whoever is not busy. She would have a party. I would want one but no one will organize it. When I build a house, I will make sure that it is for myself as much as it is for those coming home. So much so that ...

"Ma'am, please remove metal, jewelry and everything that may affect the ECG," the young nurse told me. I found a ring on her limp, left hand. I took it off and her unconscious body seemed to protest.  I had flashbacks of when she would make me wear gold earrings and come home with them gone and me with no clue as to where they were, her raised voice wailing at how careless I was. I tucked the ring in my pocket which later my daughter said was her wedding ring. It was the longest, oldest thing in that new hospital room aside from her. Older than me. Older than the machines connected to her unconscious body. She forgot about a lot of things in her last months like whose house she was in, and the names of her grandchildren. Except when she heard music. Alzheimer's leaves when she was in front of the piano as though a sound from the distant past was playing in her mind and transposing it to her fingers on the keyboard. Her fingers flew, tapped, pounded or caressed the ...

I wish it is but this is not about drinking. We marked yesterday as the day when we can say that the whole family is now fully vaccinated from the virus that caused the world to stop last year and continue to claim lives more than a year after.  We had to take turns in different circumstances, times and kinds of vaccines. The older ones had theirs first separately, then the young.  Last Friday also marked the day when the last two adult cats were neutered. Their humans weren’t the only ones who had to go through a medical process of sorts during the lockdowns. Since September last year, I made it a mission to get the then seven cats to stop procreating.  There were discussions, points raised like "What about the next generation?" but I stood my ground and painstakingly nagged everyone almost monthly to book a slot and then take the cats to the city vet. We waited patiently for any free spaying and neuter schedule we can get. They could only accommodate one pet per family....