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A neighbor of mine is an elderly lady, with no family close to her distance wise. She has a life alert, but if she falls outside of the room the call box is located in they can’t hear her answer. So every once in a while I’ll be contacted that they can’t reach her and I will run over to see if she’s ok before they send the emergency personnel to her.

In the time I’ve known her, she has lost two sons and decades before she lost her husband. Just like my grandfather, she is outliving all those she loves.

Today, while visiting her, I helped her up off the ground and she called me by another person’s name. Which wasn’t uncommon as I don’t really feel I look like the name I’ve been given. I am often called by anyone’s name but my own. She fussed at me about a utility bill that she had on her countertop, telling me it was scheduled to be turned off today because I hadn’t sent anything in. Mind you, she was still calling me by another name. When I took the bill from her, I realized it was over two months late AND she’d been charged almost four times the amount I pay with a house full of people. In investigating the bill, I realized that she’d given all of this info maybe to her daughter who lived across the state to handle but who is also handling her 94 year old aunt.

I mentally stepped back and scanned her for any other issues she may be having when I noticed the blood spots on her back. They were dried meaning she’d been on the ground a while. She also looped her stories a few time so that I was hearing the same thing two or three times.

When I got her settled and took care of her “to do” list of easy maintenance issues, I gathered my things in preparation for leaving to take care of her utility bills. She thanked me and called me by my correct name stating that she barely recognized me without my glasses and that was looking real good, “you’re gonna get you a boyfriend if you keep up looking so good!” I thanked her and laughed saying I’d resigned myself to being a spinster with the hope of collecting a few lovers in the meantime. She laughed in response and said she remembered her hoe days well. I think we both peed a little we laughed so hard.