Alzheimer’s being the conniving thieving bitch that it is, my mother wasn’t herself in the final years of her life. The woman I visited in the Alzheimer’s special care unit was a stranger wearing my mother’s skin but not much else, like the invasion of the body snatchers had taken place, month after month beneath the surface, until one day we looked and the woman we knew was gone, replaced by some alien being. An imposter. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. She died back in 2012. Don’t worry; I won’t be getting maudlin on you. My real mother–not that stranger in a wheel chair, head nodding on her shoulder–is who I want to think about today. My real mother —Enid Maude Good nee Hayden, a prim, old-fashioned name, perhaps the only thing about her I didn’t love— was British-born and had a lovely London lilt to her voice her whole life even though she left England in the mid-1950’s. I suppose at thirty, her vocal patterns were already frozen in place. Sounding like a cross between
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Any city where people walk seem to have much fitter people. All those stairs cannot hurt.
ReplyDeleteYes, and those of us who live in cities where people don't walk, (like Los Angeles, where I live) have to find a reason to. My husband just asked me where I wanted to walk today! We find lots of errands can be combined with a walk of a few thousand steps towards our 10,000 steps a day goal.
DeleteSim, I agree, but I bet all three of those guys drink beer, or wine at least. While we were in France, I ate more in quantity than I eat at home. I actually walked fewer steps than I usually do at home on many days, yet I managed not to gain any weight. Of course, in Paris, I was exceeding my step count, but I walk a lot at home too. Exercising, especially walking, is great for keeping people slim, but I do think the food in France is healthier. Even the eclair cafe, which I sometimes ate two of each day, didn't add pounds. Now that I'm home, the pounds are creeping back up. I start a diet again today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for playing along with Dreaming of France! Love hearing about your latest trip and seeing the pics. Here’s my Dreaming of France meme
I ate so much delicious and pound packing goodies in Europe but we probably walked twice as much as we do here at home, which at 10,000 steps day is more than most Angelenos do. We probably averaged about 18 to 20,000 steps a day —on our first night in Paris we walked all the way from Blvd Saint Germaine to the Eiffel Tower along the Seine and all that tromping around Pompeii and the Forum added up as well. I'm still slightly puffier than I was when we left! I blame my ancient metabolism not the pain au chocolate and sfogliatella!
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