Sleep, hearing, sight

The waiting room had a clock with a second hand that ticked loud enough for me to hear and, apparently, not loud enough for the man across from me. He had brought his wife’s handbag. She had gone in already, through the door with the little window, and he was holding the bag on his…

The Turned-Up Television Last Tuesday at the senior centre, Marlene brought in her husband’s brown paper bag. Blood pressure pills, a cholesterol tablet, something for his stomach. But what she really wanted to talk about was the television. “He has it so loud the neighbors can hear the news,” she said, stirring her coffee. “I…

I have a small confession to start with. For about a year, I thought Walt was slipping. He would answer questions I had not asked, and nod along in church, and once he laughed at a joke three beats late. I started writing little notes in the back of my calendar, the way I used…

A lot of people believe that once you pass sixty, poor sleep and dimmer hearing and weaker eyes are just the body winding down, all three on the same slide, nothing to be done. I heard it at the pharmacy counter for thirty-two years and I hear it at the senior centre now. It sounds…