First Days–Last Days
by Paulette Demers Turco

      Rehabilitation and Hospice Center, once Providence Lying-in Hospital,
      where their children were born 
                 Listed in NRHP—1986

The days crept by so slowly. Dad was lost.
A gentle man at eighty-six, he thrust
his toothbrush at the aids who tried to groom
him, help him dress. Mom stepped into his room,
faced him, “Ray.” Her presence he could trust.

Across each day, for weeks, her touch, its cost
to staff so low, appeased his dread–exhaust-
ing minutes, hours, him caught in past-lived gloom.
The days crept by so slowly

(Mom’s care outside Dad’s locked-in ward). She crossed
with staff as needed to his room. His glossed
expression cleared once he sensed her perfume.
She’d always be his bride and he, her groom.
Soon he could not swallow. Tempest-tossed,
their hours crept by so slowly.






 

Return to: