She was sixty-eight. She could not, they agreed, be expected to maintain a property that size on her own. There were assisted living facilities that had good reputations. One of Graciela’s clients had recently placed a parent in a place that was well-regarded and not unreasonably priced, and the transfer of assets to cover the costs was something Graciela handled professionally and could manage without difficulty. The important thing, they said, was to move quickly once the situation resolved itself.
Once the situation resolved itself.
I was the situation.
I lay there and listened to my children describe the efficient dismantling of the life my wife and I had built, and I was not able to speak or weep or shout or grip the side rail. I was not able to do anything at all except receive the words and store them in whatever part of me was still operating, and I stored them carefully, the way you store evidence of something you hope you are misunderstanding but know that you are not.
On the third day they went through the drawers of the bedside table that Lucía had brought from home so I would have familiar things around me.
