Just my life now

I was driving away from my Sunday visit with May and thinking I really should call her Missouri friend Judy and give her a report. Judy is May's most loyal and thoughtful friend, and she's standing by her still. But I'm not much of a person for talking on the phone. I figured calling her was just another thing I should do but wouldn't -- and then, my cell phone rang. It was Judy. We talked about how May was doing and eventually Judy said, "Well here's how I'm doing..."

She had fallen and broken her shoulder. Had surgery last week, and now had to take pills (she's not a pill person) and do rehabilitation exercises (not that kind of person either). Said it all just "irritated" her.

"But I think about something May told me one time," she said. "It was not long after you moved to Evanston. I asked her how she felt about knowing that she had Alzheimer's, and she said, 'That's just my life now. I may not like it, but I wake up in the morning and I say, this is my life now, and if I can make it through this day I'll go to bed and wake up in the morning and it will be my life again tomorrow.'"

Judy said when it was time to take her pills and do her exercises, she thought of May and told herself, "This is just my life now."