“It’s the same way my dad went,” one said to the other.
“Microwave meal?”
The other asked with a little gravedigger’s grin.
“Alzheimer’s.
They actually forget how to swallow,” answered the first one, not
slowing his pace.
The other planted his shovel in the ground beside the pile
of sod they were amassing. “I
thought they just forgot names and stuff.”
“Starts that way but the whole thing goes. A lot think they’re going to go home
from the hospital and they’re just waiting for someone to pick them up. Dad did that one. Waited weeks for Mom to come get him
not knowing she’d passed years before.”
“Damn.”
“It’s not like he remembered Mom was gone. Or that he’d been waiting so long. It’s the remembering that’d get you.”
“And he just choked on Salisbury steak?”
“Off in the corner of the cafeteria. Alone. Now get back to work.”
