Pop Leaves His Body

Mom and Pop, 50th Wedding Anniversary

In his early eighties, Pop "left his body", as they say, in his paid-for small A-frame house overlooking the dry Ventura River valley between Ojai and Ventura CA while I was on pilgrimage in Italy.

My mother and brothers took care of everything--I was far away and out of touch--and when I returned from my long pilgrimage, I stayed near Mom, living in my camper pick-up truck parked in front of that little house perched on the steep slope of Laughing Mountain for a couple of years.

Mom had a white Toyota but lost her driver's license because of poor vision.The Sky High house was miles from Ventura or Ojai, so I became her chauffeur.

We drove to weekly portrait painting classes from Carlisle Cooper at Ventura Community College--sometimes we would walk on the Ventura beach by the pier. I rode my bike (a gift from, the Coopers) to the Krotona Institute to visit their library once a week or so and took part in the musical activities at the Lutheran church in Ventura where, because of my good parents,  I was a tolerated if hairy peculiarity.

I worked the night shift at an Alzheimer's care facility in nearby Casitas Springs. There I saw how tenuous is the grasp on "ordinary reality'' for elderly people with this condition--how they can mentally come and go--in and out, from moment to moment

Ah, life, life, life. How strange it is.

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