3

nancy has had some health issues
this past year,
some of it age-related,
some of it pharmaceuticals-related,
some of it of unidentified origin,
which is not unusual
with a woman who can’t tell you
where it hurts
or even that she just doesn’t feel good.

here she is writing her name: n-a-n-c-y.
although it looks more like n-a-n
then n-
then indecipherable squiggles.

this one moves me
because in her signature,
i see a reflection,
a mirror image, really,
of what is happening in her life:
a disintegration of
the nancy she was
into a woman
who isn’t sure of
who she is
any more.

~~~~~~~~~

She draws, I stitch.
She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.