Talking

July 16, 2019

“The Baileys aren’t much for talking.” Mom’s words were no real surprise to Linda, who is pretty good at it. Linda isn’t one for sitting around, which is about all one can do while away from home taking care of mom. After a morning spent weeding the garden out front, cooking up a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup, and reading till she couldn’t stand it, I told her to get in the car and drive up to North Chili, an almost straight shot north of where we were in Churchville. 

“Take the road out front as far as it will go, turn right, then take a left where it T’s into the road that takes you to North Chili.” Linda thought that was a good idea. There’s a nice gift shop there, and it would give her something to do. So did getting lost.

The call came about twenty minutes later. She turned left where she should have turned right, and couldn’t figure out how to program her destination into the map app on her phone. “Just turn around and go back the way you came,” I told her. Then, I waited. She called about 45 minutes later to tell me she found the gift shop and was on her way back. Mom got a laugh out of it, which makes it all worthwhile. There’s not much to laugh about when you’re confined to a chair all day. She did rouse herself up enough to briefly step outside into the sweltering heat to admire Linda’s work in the garden.

As mom turned in tonight, Linda prayed with her, bringing tears to her eyes (not a very difficult task). I could hear them talking and laughing in the other room. I wish I were a better conversationalist, but I’m not good at small talk and run out of things to say pretty quickly. Linda once claimed that I couldn’t carry on a decent conversation without notes. She’s not far wrong. Fortunately, she is good at it, and kept up a pretty steady patter with mom whenever mom wasn’t taking a snooze. I’ll miss her tomorrow when she heads for home. Tonight, I had better start taking notes so I don’t run out of things to say. And I’ll be thankful for a wife who loves my mother and can keep up a running conversation with that particular Bailey who isn’t much for talking.