Yesterday I saw one of my friends at the shops. She was sitting on a seat near the lottery counter. She seems to be shrinking. I sat myself down and began to chat with her and I was amazed that we both spoke the same language.
We ascertained how we both were and then went on to talk about some friends from Church. Well we tried to talk about people but we couldn’t remember their names. Our conversation went a bit like this.
“How are you?”
“I am fine, how are you?”
“How are the family?”
Well Peter has the same thing that James had……………..you know………..prostate cancer.”
“Oh that is awful.”
“Yes but he is fine now.”
You know Kath died don’t you?”
“OMG how awful.”
“I used to hate it when she phoned me because she was deaf that she couldn’t hear my answers.”
“Oh and Margaret’s husband died and now she is in the Alzheimers Ward in the Nursing Home.”
“She has gone down hill quickly.”
“You know her friend………. the lady that used to take Communion to the Nursing Home with her, she must be devastated. They were friends for thirty years or more………….I just can’t think of her name.”
How is Ruth, is she still walking?”
“I think she does but her husband………….whathisname……………he is sick and not able to drive anymore.”
“Oh and Pat………….you know the one who lived over the East, well she died?”
“I don’t think I told you Annie is writing up her husband’s life story………..he lived such an interesting life.”
“I would love to do something like that. I had better start soon or I won’t remember anything.”
“Is the awful lady still going walking, you know the one……………..the one Pat didn’t get on with. The one………………I think she was German……..you know?”
“I know who you mean………………… I don’t think so, I haven’t seen her but I really don’t go out much anymore, just to do the shopping and my Friday mornings at the Church.”
“There is one lady I see sometimes………………..what’s her name………….well anyway we think she is wearing a wig.”
“She went away on a tour with some other Church ladies but she slept in it, if it is a wig.”
“If we see her I will give her hair a bit of a tug. I will say something about leaves in her hair or something.”
“Joan Wilson is still going strong but she isn’t allowed to drive anymore. I think she is ninety-three.”
“She is amazing. Is she still in that club………….you know…………….about plants or something.”
“I think she is but I don’t seem to be able to keep track…………..!”
Enter her husband. Whathisname? I know his name……………….I really do but I just couldn’t think of it at the time. He is a dapper man and has a sort of little pencil mustache……………………………I should know his name………………it is the same as Margaret’s husband……………………..the one in the Nursing Home……………the one who died. You know………………………oh well I will think of it later.
“Well I must be off, I have to get shopping done…………..bye…ah…………ah………..?”
I wouldn’t mind our muddled conversation except that my friend is in her eighties but I am only in my sixties. If I am as muddled as her now, what am I going to be like when I am in my eighties?
This conversation is either very funny or very sad, I cannot make up my mind or what is left of it. Maybe it is a little of each.
No comments:
Post a Comment