Independence Day!

I miss Betty. After twenty-three nights of amazing attention and care, it was hard to cut the new umbilical cord I had grown. I have had a lot of help over the last twenty-five day from a lot of people, and I know it! But it is an exceptional person who opens her home to you, includes you as one of the family, prepares all your meals and delivers most up two flights of stairs (even going to the store to get things you would want – a six block walk each way), lets you invite colleagues and friends into her home and take calls at her number, changes sheets and towels, launders all your clothes and linens, and then asks if she can help pack your old home and unpack you in to your new home. Betty and I watched “Death at a Funeral”, “Down in the Valley”, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, "Lovely and Amazing", “How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer”, “Lars and the Real Girl”, “Reservation Road”, “Shattered”, and a couple more. We played Quiddler, Yahtzee, Skip Bo, and Dominoes. Her grandsons were there individually and played games with me, too. I was invited to family outings with her daughters and their families. So when Betty returned with her grandson Austin on Wednesday, she hoped I would stay another day, so we could hang out. I stayed, but was out with friends, so we didn’t get to hang out. I offered to stay another night, since (1) I still didn’t have sheets on my bed and (2) didn’t get to hang out Wednesday. This morning, after a wonderful breakfast and a couple of games, Betty carried all my belongings to [Claire’s] car, unloaded all my belongings, made my bed, wanted to water the garden, but there was no water, and then helped clear out the recycling and give-away clothes. She told me I didn’t have to leave, and there is a big part of me that would be happy to never leave. She told me not to cry, and I told her I had something in my eye. Congratulations to me for taking my first shower, listening to music here for the first time, and soon…my first sleepover. This is really a day of independence for me, but I am reminded by my heart how great it is to be in relation with people and not cling to my independence too much. For a country that struggles to do “the right thing”, we could all take a moment in our celebration of our independence to appreciate all the people we depend on for meaning in our lives, for food on our tables, for the laws that govern our society (even if we don’t really agree with our government), and for caring for us when we need it. Peace.