Every night, after the stroke, I got her in bed and she asked,
\u201cIs my head in exactly the right place on the pillow. Exactly?\u201d
The pillow is as thin as an envelope, yet it holds the slight
hollow her head makes. I guaranteed the perfect position.
She slumbers heavily, never moving. My sleep comes late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These nights, I nestle my head in the precise same place
and pat the other side of the bed and say, \u201cGood night.\u201d
Her answer is a soft, thin echo in my head. \u201cGood night.\u201d
\u201cI love you.\u201d Then a weak tremulous \u201cI love you too.\u201d
In the morning, the usual aches as I roll over gingerly.
Her side is empty as a vacant casket. I caress the sheet.
\u201cGood morning.\u201d \u201cMorning. Think your coffee\u2019s ready.\u201d
I head downstairs, using her stairlift with its familiar hum.
I smell the coffee pod and hear its dying spit and sputter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every night, after the stroke, I got her in bed and she asked,\u201cIs my head in exactly the right place on the pillow. Exactly?\u201dThe pillow is as thin as an envelope, yet it holds the slighthollow her head makes. I guaranteed the perfect position.She slumbers heavily, never moving. My sleep comes late. These nights, I … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-122","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3973,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions\/3973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Mac McLeod is an old man, ninety on his next birthday. A southerner by birth and disposition, he\u2019s had several careers. A husband, father of five, former military aviator, lawyer, insurance agency owner, and Episcopal priest. He has a good sense of both humor and the absurdities of life and living. A new poet, he’s recently been writing sonnets.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"