from Asia in Switzerland
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kiene angst: I have an update on my ancient Aunt Mary.
About a year ago I wrote about her seeming indestructability and my mother's melodramatic musings on her sexual orientation. After spending two weeks with her and the rest of the Victoria clan I have this to add: She has decided she is going to live to one hundred and six.
This is her reasoning; she is living in a retirement complex, this differs from a nursing home in that the inmates have a private unit and feed themselves breakfast. And trust me the distinction is extremely important to those that live there. It means they still have some illusion if independance and are therefore a step further from death than thier less fortunate friends. "did you hear about Fred? He had to go into a 'home'." "No, and he was only 80." Note: Fred is already in that past tense. In other words Fred has entered the world of the living dead far more effectively than George A. Romero ever conceived.
She has a lovely one bedroom unit and a lively social sphere. One of her friends, Rose, is what, I suspect, used to be refered to as a "firecracker." Stefan and I showed up for Bingo night and Rose won two times. There was much disgusted shaking of unsteady grey and white heads but it was mingled with an odd relief that even at their age there are some that win and some that don't. The second time she won she declined the $1.50 cash prize, nodded at Stefan and said, "I'll take him instead" The phrase, 'I laughed fit to kill' almost took on new meaning. Mary, not to be outdone told a joke with the punchline, "not all your hair goes white" (shudder)
Anyway, where was I? Mary is survivng on a CPR pension, the only good thing that Max ever did for her, but at her current rate of expenditure it will run out by 2013. She will be 104.
In the the same conversation in which she forced me to take inventory of her worldy possessions and choose what I wanted after she had "gone" she explained to me that she was getting rid of a few of the smaller things locally because she was on the waiting list for a bachelor unit. I said, "you want to move?" She said, "well, not really dear but I'd rather be in a smaller unit now than have to rely on the kindness of family when I'm 105." ...
Not much you can say to that.
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