Conversations

September 27

He grabbed my hand, hard, and brought it to his chest.  "Wait!  I need to talk to you."  He had not been talking out loud for a week, just mumbling softly on a rare occasion.  I knelt and put my face in front of his gaze, "Yes, my love, I am here," I replied.  "I want to say goodbye to you and to tell you that I love you very much."  Perhaps he recognized that I might be leaving and he meant it literally.  But I took it cosmically and had to take a knee.

October 9

I held him to me and babbled my loneliness.  I told him all about the weekend family wedding I had attended.  I talked about the people I had seen and asked him about who he remembered and who he didn't.  I confessed passionately that I was so grateful that I was no longer mad at him and explained that he had never done anything to make me mad, that it was my own journey.  It was so nice to be with him.  Another gift of assisted living.  He straightened in his chair and looked right at my face.
"Wait!  What is your name?" he asked.  I replied that I was Ann...his Ann.  He smiled broadly and answered, "Well, no wonder!"  It made me so happy to see the dark veil drop, even for a minute, and recognition flood through.  I told him that although his mind forgot me from time to time, I was always there with him and that his heart never forgot me.  He liked that.