Spending the past few days driving to and from southern Wisconsin and visiting friends and relatives, I am glad to be home. Home isn’t always perfect, but it is comfortable, and I know where things are. I can sit in my familiar chair and sleep in my bed that my back knows so well.
The main reason for the trip was to visit my 101-year-old Aunt Gertie. She is my dad’s sister and amazes me every time I see her. Most years I try to get down to visit her two or three times each year, but since I spent all of my summer in recovery from surgery, it had to wait until late fall this year.
Of course, we had spoken on the phone in between. She kept telling me how she was slowing down and not doing everything she had done before. In reality, I saw very little sign of it while I was with her.
Her TV wasn’t working, and in the effort to find new batteries for the remote control, she climbed on a step stool to get a box down from the upper cupboard. She made it up and down it safely, but unfortunately the new batteries didn’t help, as the TV was still not working.
Some things in life remain mysteries. The workings of newfangled TV’s are one of them. Was it the batteries? Did the wrong button get pushed? Is the TV worn out? We did not know and were not wise enough to figure it out.
Modern highways are also becoming mysteries, to me at least. I found a roundabout where none had been before. At the risk of becoming arrested, I admit to seeing my exit in the roundabout after I was past it, and since no other vehicle was in the roundabout at the time, I went around it again and got out of it on the correct highway. Otherwise, who knows where I would have wound up.
I am thinking that this means I need to drive these types of highways more often, so I get practice on the new ways of doing things. Either that or hang up the keys and wait for others to drive me.
I doubt that will be the answer I will choose, because I have my aunt as an example. She has experienced so many things in her life. Being born in 1914, she saw the time when cars replaced horses. She has had many joys in her life, but there were sad times, too. Just this past year she lost both of her younger sisters.
She may have aches and pains, but she keeps going. One day a week is devoted to going to her church and helping to sew quilts for missions.
The day I was there, in addition to trying to get the TV going, we played cards. We hadn’t done that for a couple of years, and it took a while before we remembered all of the rules of the game. After a couple of rounds, she was tired, and I have to admit, I was tired also.
Our farewell hug was bittersweet, and she stood and watched as I drove away. I remember similar farewells when I was a child, except my dad would be driving and I would be crying because I would know it would be a long time before I would see her again. So take care, dear aunt.
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