So the red can opener, that was to be replaced by one I could actually use without bloodying my fingers, remains. Here I am using it again, and I’ll likely continue to despite my vows to the contrary. Not only have I not replaced it but I’ve kind of settled in with Old Red.
You might say I have personified her:
“Soup again for dinner?” I hear her ask as I dig her blades into a can of Progresso.
“I like soup, and it’s cold tonight.”
“Your daughter would say otherwise.”
“Probably, but she’s not here.”
“You wouldn’t want me to tell her…”
“She doesn’t talk to can openers. That’s my thing.”
Now that we’ve had conversations, I can’t just toss her out.
Just as I got used to a squeaky drawer in my kitchen, and would feel cheated if it just opened minus noise, I’ve become used to Old Red. While I once called her faulty and deficient, I now think of her as eccentric, even charming in a way that comes with age.
“Do not dread old age.
It is just sitting down
to eat the orange marmalade
you made when you were young.”
Merle Perry was 89 when she wrote this verse.
The retired nurse, with a gentle soul, was a participant in a poetry class I taught for seniors. Her wisdom was itself a poem.
Although this old house that I have lived in for more than 40 years cannot write poetry, it does tell stories. The hallway writes tales of lifetimes interwoven. Memories of babies crawling, and the babies they brought forth, live in the shadows.
Life echoes from the walls where their pictures hang. Tiny hands hug me. Tears are dabbed. Treats are dispensed. A stuffed elephant dances in a corner.
They bring light to the dark hallway that shades the dust balls nestled in the molding.
The hallway leads me each morning from my bedroom to the rest of the house. The narrow stilled tramway ushers me into a new day serenaded by songs passed and melodies yet to be composed.
I begin my day with a cup of tea and a blank page.
Email patriciabunin@sbcglobal.net follow her on Twitter @patriciabunin
The Link LonkDecember 05, 2020 at 10:46PM
https://www.sgvtribune.com/2020/12/05/senior-moments-why-ive-come-to-rely-on-old-red-my-former-nemesis/
Senior Moments: Why I’ve come to rely on Old Red, my former nemesis - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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