Tonight we ate dinner with Aunt Jackie and Uncle Ralph. It was slightly painful, but bearable. The only two highlights that I feel like writing about…..

My step dad Bob just recently started walking with a four pronged cane. He shuffles unsteadily and slowly makes his way along. As we walked through the front door of Ralph and Jackie’s new “retirement home” my step dad, tripped over the door jamb. He wobbled for a few seconds and we all sucked our breath in fear. The cane steadied him, he righted and continued his way through the door. Jackie looked at my mom, rolled her eyes up and said, “Well that’s all I that I need right now”. She said it twice and I think was waiting for my mom to agree with her. How dare Bob almost break his neck. Do you know what that would do to Jackie’s nerves?

I put “retirement home” in quotes up there because really it’s like a nursing home for kazillionaires. They have their own home but it’s outfitted with a special bathroom for my uncle who had a stroke, an a elevator to get to the second floor and emergency buttons to call staff. It’s a subdivision of red brick houses that are desperately trying to disguise the fact that they are in fact an institution. Albeit a swank institution with a forest preserve, activities, movies and the restaurant where we ate tonight. The restaurant that I found served nothing but beef and chicken. I guess eighty five year old vegetarians are a rare thing.

Then Jackie had a glass of wine with dinner. She turned to Bob and said, “Helene (my mom) calls me up all the time and says that you’re practically knocking on death’s door. I think she’s way off, you look fantastic”.