“Do you need anything from the store?” I say loudly into the phone. “No, but I’ll ask your father.” I hear, and picture, everything. Mom shuffles across the kitchen to Dad’s chair in the living room, holding onto chairs and sidestepping the walker sitting by her La-Z-Boy as she passes. “Sherry’s going to the store. Do you want anything?” “Wine,” he says. They both wear hearing aids but hers aren’t in. “Say it louder,” she says, and he does. Twice more. She reverses course, picks up the phone, and says, “he doesn’t want anything.” Later, I bring him a gift.
Sherry Spuches is a retired mother, grandmother, and wife living in Central New York.