A Poignant Scene

Doing my stretches each morning, I open the blinds to do Tree and Sun Salutations. It has snowed each morning since Christmas and is so entrancing. On New Years Day when I opened the blinds, I noticed Ed Denny across the street getting out of his car and walking into the garage. Soon he came walking out slowly with his wife and carefully got her situated in the car. Then he went over and lowered his flag and gently walked it into the house. He came back out and they drove off. Why would they go on a snowy morning? I think I know. Their son in New Mexico is being treated for cancer. He has no family there. The whole scene made me so sad.  Kathi (her husband calls her Katy) was born and raised in Germany. Her father helped clean up Dresden after it was bombed out during World War II. Still they fly an American Flag each day they are here. They had three children; their little girl died at two years old. Both of their sons’ wives died young.  They only have one grandchild (whom they virtually raised. He went to school here and all because both of his parents worked) and he moved to Alabama with his family. Ed mowed our lawn last summer more than Karlton did. He’s always doing things for the neighbors. When we moved here, they were barely 50—just liked us—and now they are old and rickety—just like us. Kathi is very positive and always thinks the best will come to pass. She says she has good vibes about her son’s prognoses. Looking out my window was sort of like time passing by in slow motion. Thirty-two years of watching them grow old out my window and doing their best to alleviate the sorrow and suffering that comes into all our lives.

Kathi is as crippled up

as I am, having had both hips

and both knees replaced,

plus several back operations;

but she refuses to use a cane.

She doesn’t want to look old,

like me.