TIS the editor

Before I paste the text in here, I just want to say that I could not tell this story to the husband without sobbing. Part of it is because the editor has also become the caretaker to her husband with one big difference to my situation: her husband has periods of anger and paranoia and she has been on the receiving end of some serious verbal abuse. They’re also both in their late 70’s and she sometimes talks fatalistically in regards to her future. Also, she consistently prioritizes her husband’s health over her own. That is concerning to me as her friend. I would like her to be happy and carefree. It is not possible considering her situation which coincided with this pandemic. They too have been super covid careful because of the increased riskiness of a Covid infection with whatever ails them. I really miss my friend. I haven’t seen her since the fall of 2019.

Good bye to 2022! It sucked!

I went to the grocery store today because I really needed food. It was packed. Worst timing. Will prepare better for all future holidays. I pulled my mask on tight and shopped as fast as possible. I chose one particular check out lane (all 4 people deep) because there was female cashier (they’re consistently faster than men) and the last woman on line had two items in her cart. So I got in line behind her. At some point she said something to me and we had a brief exchange. I told her I thought shopping for two items during the mayhem around us was a bold and courageous move. She said it was worse than I knew because she had just driven 45 minutes to get this particular jar of ginger jelly. They didn’t have it at her regular store. Then the line moved and I realized she really reminded me of you. Same size, same walk, and super friendly. She had a really kind face. I almost got teary. So when the cashier scanned her two items I said “Put that on my receipt, she’s good. I wanna pay for it.” And the lady who reminded me of you was so surprised and so grateful and we ended up hugging and then the cashier gave me a bouquet of flowers when I left. It was really nice.