Alzheimer Dad

I wasn't ready for this one, really. This was the other shoe falling. My papa died, and then his girlfriend, 2 years later. Bev took to her bed after Phil (my dad) was taken from her home, shaky with palsy, anger and Alzheimers. From playing tennis twice a week and singing with her chorus, she went in her bed. I suffered an aneruysm when he died, and Bev sent money to keep me floating. After a while I was well enough, and began coming down to FLa to take care of her..in my inept way. I would hang out with the ladies from her chorus, got to know all the octogenarian altos and sopranos...Bev would say, 'its no fun for you, here, with me sick", but i got to use a good car and go shopping for sale items at the mall, it was almost idyllic. We talked of books and politics and music and God..how many old ladies know who the Secretary of State is? Who Dick Cheney is? Certainly not the kids in the Intermediate school where I taught drama..The teaching job..fulfilling my dad's request that i become a teacher..and after years of singing rock and roll, I got my first assignment...But I had postponed the job..because in Spring, Bev had been diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm..surgery? no surgery? Was it growing? was it staying put? Could the endoscopic surgery be done? certainly she wasnt fit enough for them to open up her chest...So I went down every other month..staying on point in case she needed me...Got there after the hurricane, not during..she was supposed to have her surgery then, but it all got postponed. I went down then, and struggled with the gas lines, the power outtages, the food foraging in the dark (the supermarket selling non perishables s)..i skipped thanksgiving, but planned christmas down there with my son...and then she got the call for the surgery..she wanted me there..i didn't have the money..she couldn't send it fast enough..i asked friends for help..the ticket was 500 bucks roundtrip for 3 days..because i had to get back for the kid's holiday show. I had finally started my parttime job 3 days a week so that i could be with her if need be, but i had one show to do on dec 5th. i had started as a drama teacher in the republican stronghold of bensonhurst, brooklyn. the sons and daughters of italy were not so much present as the sons and daughters of mussolini. my coworkers watched fox news in the teachers room, trading crude sexual banter while engaging in what looked like a degenerate level of gambling. everyday it was a new football pool..with the ringleader trying to wring bigger bets out of the young ladies who had just started teaching. . i kept my eyes to the internet, and tried to ignore my environs.
the gig was good. in at 8am out at 2:30, a drive over the bridge took 30 minutes. Bev had bought me a car for my birthday after she bought one for her cook. I said' as long as you're playing oprah winfrey, maybe you want to give me a car, too. I havent' had one for over 2 years..this was joking, but sure enough, she sent dough. I bought a car on ebay, and i felt like cinderella..noone had ever bought me a car. ever. my mother had tried to bribe me with her car..to go to college in ny instead of hawaii, but i stayed in the aloha state with my 200 dollar beater..and i'd been living like a graduate student ever since (minus the master's degree, though).
Well it was decided that the surgery must prevail, and that i would come down and nurse her back to health 2 weeks after the surgery.
instead..she lay in intensive care for 4 days..unable to eat. olga told me on the way back from the memorial that they took her out of the icu to die, since she couldn't thrive..they wouldn'tl let me talk to her..on the last day she had a phone in her room..Hi honey, i said. I'm so glad to hear your voice. "i hurt so much" she said. Where does it hurt? I asked. All over.
I just hurt all over.
I want to see you
I want to see you too.
I'll be there soon.
I love you very much
I love you too.
Oh, here comes the lady with the breathing equipment. I can't breathe
Okay, take your medicine, and you'll breathe better. I'll call you in the morning.
That night, she died.
I didnt' know it. I tried to call, no answer
Dumb hospital, they always screw up the phones..
I went to work.
Got a letter saying all the parttime teachers had been fired.
I went for a walk, tears..
when i got home, I called. No answer.
She's in treatment, I said.
I went to a rally for Democrats.
I went home
Called again.
There were messages..
Bev had died. Hours after I had spoken to her.

That Friday, My son went with his friends and hung out on a roof, where they graffitied and drank, apparently.
Rent a cops found his stuff on the roof. Said they were looking for restitution. Said to come down on Monday.
I went with my son. He was handcuffed and taken to jail, overnight. charged as an adult. he's 16. The other shoe falls.