Together by Judy Goldman

Author:Judy Goldman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2019-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

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Our instruction involves holding Henry while he takes one step from the wheelchair into the car; then we lift his legs around to the front. Why was it so important that we “learn” this? It is nothing compared to what I’ve had to do these past weeks—alone—without any training, when no nurse or aide was available.

It’s after eleven (three hours since we arrived at the rehab facility) when Mike finally pulls away from the curb.

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After we get Henry and his wheelchair up the back steps, inside the house, into the kitchen, he begins to cry. Mike and I are crying, too. I cross the room to where I keep the Kleenex box. I open the drawer beneath my collection of ceramic pitchers on the counter and pull out one, two, three Kleenex. Sixteen days since Henry and I walked out, double-locked the back door, and drove to the outpatient clinic for the epidural. We were supposed to be back home in an hour and a half. We’re home now, in this kitchen—and the kitchen feels so normal. The pine table I found years ago at a flea market in the mountains looks just like we left it sixteen days ago. You can still see the hole burned through the wood from the Hanukkah candle that fell out of the menorah when the children were little. The four chairs that used to belong to Henry’s mother, white then, now painted red, and the brass light fixture over the table. Normal. The wide window, quiet backyard, birdfeeder. Normal. The birdfeeder just needs seed.

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