A shocking confession

I had dinner with Mom in Cranberry last night. She was her evening self -- feeble, anxious and unable to relax. She said she was worried about her walking, and I was too. She moves -- not walks really -- sliding one foot just barely ahead of the other, and when she does this fast, it's almost funny, but too, too sad.

She has a cheap, aluminum walker, which I had her experiment with, but it's not really even strong enough to hold her up if she started to fall. I was going to buy a better one today, but Sister S arrived for the weekend and learned that the place will provide one.

At dinner they served duck, and D, wearing dark glasses to hide her red, post-cry eyes, said it was great, which is a first from her, I think. It brought up talk of local restaurants, and a movie everybody had liked -- "Babette's Feast" -- and even D praised it, another first. Mom looked at me, stony-faced, and said she didn't understand what we were talking about.

"A restaurant, Mom," I said. And, "A movie."

Back in the room, she said C and D spend all their time together, and the day before, she said, "I got so mad, so mad inside myself. And I went down to the, the place --"

"The Bistro?"

"Yes, and I bought a $20 bottle of wine, and I brought it back to the room."

She said she poured a glass, sipped it, but it was Merlot and she hated it, and put the bottle in the fridge. She'd had some since then, she said, and it tasted better.

I was shocked at this story. She has never been intemperate. To run to drink because she's mad at her friends? And Merlot? Her doctors have told her stay away from red wine. I think my mother was popular all her life, and this social rejection -- it has thrown her.

She must have seen my reaction. She put her finger on my face, where I'd cut myself shaving. "It's like this," she said. "It was a little mistake."

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Sister S is here, huzzah. Friday night we'll put Mom to bed and Julie and S and I will go out for a late dinner.

*

The spy ship was gone by last night, and everybody said they missed it.


The spy ship: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/wondering-about-that-ship-anchored-in-lake-michigan-heres-the-answer-b99512125z1-305897831.html

Another picture, just because I can.