.
I cannot live alone anymore. I have a capable, congenial caregiver, Tom Penados, five days a week and a good replacement on weekends. With that arrangement I can continue in my co-op apartment, still about the same as when my wife died last year. Without them I would have to find a nursing home.
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StumbleUponLately, I have been thinking often of my mother and dreaming of her. Why? My caregiver, who leaves my thoughts alone, cares for my dressing, hygiene, and food, as my mother did in my early years. So, I think of her often.
Today is the day for our co-op's annual garden party, for which residents prepare a table of delights. My 24-year-old grandson, who is a culinary artist and expert, prepared an attractive appetizer.
His presence in the apartment is itself a delight. Loss of a cherished spouse is irreparable, but the presence of an upbeat grandson helps my mood. My grandson's presence is a welcome home "activity."
Another pleasurable home activity is listening to Radio Classique as it comes from Paris through the Internet. The music is agreeable, but I am intrigued over and over by the commercials, the discussions, and the news reports. What fluent French! What wonderful French accents! How rapid! I thought I knew French. I listen to it now, attentive, and chastened but hopeful.
I wrote the authorities to suspend my lawyer license until my vision improves enough for me to read adequately. An illusion! At the garden party, a fellow co-op resident recalled my being seated at a table in the county law library with a pile of books and a yellow legal pad in front of me. I don't know how to use the present tools—computer, Internet, Google, etc. I have to let the law license go!
Thanks, FDR, for pushing Social Security, and thanks, LBJ, for Medicare. I wish I were mobile and could knock on doors for Obama, where needed in adjoining states. I spent much of many campaigns knocking on doors, and it hurts that Illinois is so solidly for Obama that I don't have to work here, and can't do so elsewhere.
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Note from the Fray Editor
"Keep writing Leon you are interesting" Boils said, speaking for all of us: everyone loved Leon.
Comments from the Fray
Dear Alderman Despres,
Well, you'll always be Alderman to me!! I've followed your richly exciting life for over forty years, not just about your independent stance in the Chicago City Council, but also through the life and times of Hyde Park lore and mischief that included Merton Gill, Bernie Epton, Aaron Hilkevitch and many others. I look forward to hearing more about your little jaunts in the city (as well as about your well-deserved little naps) for many more years!!
--disembedded
(To reply, click here)
What a lovely piece of writing, so sensitive and rousing really. I must admit that I did come to tears, not because I felt sorry for you, not at all, but because your voice carries such impact. Suddenly, I wanted to go to your apartment and converse with you for an entire day. I just know you must have many stories to tell. Your thanking FDR and LBJ touched me deeply. I was born during FDR's administration and I remember my father telling me how thankful he was that his own father was able to collect social security even though he had contributed for only four years before he retired.
--eikciv
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Sorry to use the trite phrase 'an inspiration' but your diary entry fills me with optimism. So I'll say it anyway; your attitude is an inspiration, and bears testimony to the beauty, and absurdity, of life. I'm only a little over halfway to your years, and will quite probably never see 100, but if I can sustain only a fraction of your interest in life for whatever years I've been allotted, I'll continue to be satisfied. Bravo!
--olld jarhead
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Through Leon's writing I was swept up into the ruminations of a fascinating mind that continues well into years that many people can not even imagine. It made me realize that life is life. What you think about today is as important as what you think about in 20 years, 30 years, even 100 years.
I work in the hospital and only see older people who have experienced a great tragedy. Reading your articles made me smile and appreciate that people live robust lives deep in years.
In a country that values youth over wisdom, it is easy to lose touch with people who retire or are shuffled off to nursing homes but I think this separation is at a great disservice to us. These articles are like a conversation with that interesting older man whom you see around but never get to speak with.
--akaneshua
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(9/11)