Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Walker...

I passed her in the alley on the way home, large, in clogs without any socks, grey hair dyed blonde, the rain turning to snow with a wind rising, cold, gingerly braving the asphalt, hanging onto her walker, out, exercising, steps barely felt by numb feet and legs but each touch of the ground and forward motion an accomplishment. We crossed the road. Opening my door, the dog ran out and greeted her, which lit her face up. But where the pavement curved to meet the drain she fell. Sideways, on her hip. After assuring us she was fine, a neighbour and I lifted her to her feet. The ambulance was already flashing behind us. "I'm fine, I'm fine, thank you." I placed her purse on her walker and she began her slow step forward. Her hands couldn't grip the walker, it was uneven, the ground, and she fell again. The snow falling on bare skin, I pulled her top down, a small dignity, as the paramedics came and spoke to her and then lifted her and gently took her into the ambulance... perhaps diabetes, I didn't ask, only blessed her and wished her well and waved good-bye, and then came and wrote this, a sketch to remember her by.

2 comments:

  1. how did the ambulance know to find her? there must be much more to this story we don't know. bless her heart - i hope she is ok and that there is someone there for her. i love your kind heart.

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  2. Oh, Sky, it was quite distressing, to see someone valiantly struggling to walk, and falling twice, yet she seemed resigned, no irritation at all, or embarrassment, as I would have had surely, just get up and keep going, and even the ambulance didn't faze her, she was so gentle and accepting. I live in a downtown neighbourhood. Someone at Starbucks, we were just coming out of a warm spell, who was sitting outside apparently called the ambulance the first time she fell and they must have been in the area because the flashing vehicle arrived almost immediately. While we have universal health care in Canada, we pay separately for an ambulance and so she didn't want to accept any help from the paramedics, but she fell again and so had to... she seemed a dear, sweet woman... I hope she's alright. I'd never seen her in the neighbourhood before but then it's quite a busy area.

    The night after I posted, I saw an elderly gentleman in the same alley, it's fairly flat and there are few cars, with his cane, getting one foot slowly in front of the other, thin, determined, oh, age, oh age, and how valiant, how very wonderful to see such spirit and strength in the face of increasing fragility and difficulty, of demise. xo

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A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' Paintings

A video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them. Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E ___