Jan 30, 2024
I volunteer fot Meals on Wheels several times a month.  While I find the methodology to be amazingly carbon emission unfriendly; the good it does really balances that out, and probably outweighs that.  But, that is not the point of this chat.  I am a fill-in delivery driver, filling in on various shifts needing a driver that day.  My routes are generally in N-NE Ralrigh.  The neighborhoods range from neat middle-class and well kept to the most desparate of trailer parks, in-need of repair apartment complexes to well maintained.  Every door that opens after my knock reveals a life nearing its end.  Some people are happy, some less so.  There are SO many care givers-paid, family members. spouses.  And there are SO many alone.  Everyone is in various states of healt, of attitude, and of means.  Some homes are neat as a pin, some look like a "Hoarders" episode. There is no correlation between  vigor, happiness, means, surroundings, or socila situation.  It is uplifting and depressing at the same time.

This week one door opening sticks with me.  She answered the door, I handed her the food.  She was in her 80's  He was back in the apartment, immoblie, blanketed.  I waved and said  "Hello back there!"  He returned a feeble wave.   These two humans, near the end of life.  No obvious complaints with life, still together.  I now see the love in marriages, and the vow "Till death do us part" It makes me wonder which one of us, Polly or I, will take care of the other.