“Addison,” he protested. “We want to take care of you and make sure you’re okay. You can’t be here alone.”
“Then you can come see me right here. In my home. Where I’ll be.”
I know that’s right!
“How would it look for us to leave you here alone?” Mom asked. “We have the space.” She pointed to Monica. “You can bring your nurse.”
As they went back and forth, I really didn’t understand how my parents thought Aunt Addison would want to leave her home and live with them. They meant well, but they missed the mark.
“Her speech and her enunciation are a little off, but that mind of hers is sharp as a tack,” Mom pointed out later, when we were alone.
Aunt Addy had gone to her room to rest, and Monica and my father were discussing her care in the kitchen.
“It’s tough seeing her not moving around on her own though,” she continued, pulling a frown.
“Yeah, it is. She was moving a lot better when she was fresh out of rehab. We did a bunch of stuff in July, and she’d get out of her chair. But she started declining again. Her energy seems to be decreasing.” My voice cracked, and I bit my lip to keep my emotions in check.
My mom pulled me in for a hug. “I know you’re looking forward to getting back home. Aaliyah’s birthday party is this weekend, right?”
“I’m looking forward to the party, but I’ve enjoyed spending this time with Aunt Addy,” I admitted, releasing from the embrace. “It was an unexpected stay, but I think it was necessary.”
She patted my knee. “You’re a blessing. We were ready to come right back up here if we had to.”
“I know. But I was already here, and I didn’t have work, so it worked out.”
“School starts on Monday?”
“On Tuesday.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Are you happy?”
“I mean…” I gestured in the direction of Aunt Addy’s room. “Not with this situation.”
“Of course not. I just worry about this being the second significant loss in the last couple of years.”
“Second?”
“First your divorce and now this. You’re up in Richland, and I know you have your friends and your job, but I worry about you.”
“My divorce doesn’t compare to losing Aunt Addy… at all.”
“But it was a loss. He was yourhusband.”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom, please.”
“I worry that when Addison passes, you will shut down like you shut down after your divorce.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “I didn’t shut down. I just… took the time to heal from the situation and to unlearn what I’d been taught.”
As if she hadn’t heard anything I’d just said, she continued. “And when we lose Addison, who has always been your closest confidant, will you shut out your friends? The rest of your family? I don’t want you to be lonely.”
“Why would you think I’d shut my family and friends out?” I looked around the empty room in confusion.What is she on?
“Because that’s what happened after your divorce,” she said emphatically. “You abruptly cut ties with Tyson, no questions asked. And then you abandoned the idea of marriage and relationships.”
Making a face, I shifted uncomfortably. “That’s not exactly what happened.”
“Then why haven’t you dated again? Why do you insist on being alone?”
