An Untitled Life

Today I’m spending time with my grandmother, who we all call “Ma.” She is 87. She has always been the glue of our family. Somehow, she still is, even though she is well into the disease of Alzheimer’s.

This disease evokes a lot of emotions. The overriding one for me is sadness, but there is some laughter in there as well. It is a disease that both of my grandmothers suffered from, as well as my great-grandmother. So, there is also the possibility (reality?) that it is coming for me too.

My grandmother got up yesterday morning and told me “one morning I’ma up and die.” And then she laughed like it was the funniest joke ever. It made me laugh too.

But later that night she was very distressed. Why? The shoes my mom ordered for her “were so damn heavy,” she kept saying. All evening she’d frown at…