The Fullness of a Life
When I was a lot younger but still an adult I entertained a crazy idea about aging that even though it seemed true I knew it wasn't. It seemed to me that elderly people just sprung up that way. Suddenly they appeared just skin and bones with not a whole lot of past and not very much future. Silly idea isn't it? When my grandmother was skin and bones, I only understood a little of her past. Most of the pictures that were younger showed her at a healthier weight and less wrinkles but she still had a bun and the same kind of nondescript dress and no smile. I loved Carrie Parsons but I only knew her as the elderly woman who sewed a lot, and made wonderful potato rolls with a sugar glaze. Her severe hearing problem kept her from hearing the news on television and also kept her from gleaning more from the fast and sometimes thoughtless conversations around her. Yes, the last couple of years my mother was skin and bones like my grandmother had been and she also had a hearing lo...