Sunday, August 31

Today at Ren rehab I met a woman whose husband just came there a couple of days ago. He had a stroke, she told me, in late July--a month after Tommy had his (Tommy's was in late June, her husband's was in late July). As she told me about his stroke, her eyes began to tear up. Oh Lord, I thought, as I listened to her, I know just where she's at. "He can't talk," she told me; "and his whole right side is paralyzed." I had seen her in the rehab wing the last couple of days, coming and going; very young looking (at least compared with me), with a fresh lovely face and long reddish-brown hair. We talked for a few minutes, and I found out that she's a few years younger than I am, and he's a few years older than Tommy is. "It'll be okay," I said to her; "this is a good place and the rehab people will help him a lot." So, when I got home this evening, Irv was here, taking the dogs out for their evening run. I told him about my encounter in the rehab wing. "It was weird," I told Irv; "I felt like I was so far ahead of her, because....because..." And, Irv finished my sentence...."because, you were a month ahead of her." "Yes," I said. A month. There are times when a month seems like a thousand years, and it seems like you've known an old friend--like Irv--for that long as well.