The Last Walk

I enjoy walking...always have. Especially on a beautiful day like this.

They told me that if I wanted to walk, I'd just have to go up and down the hallways. That's not the same thing, so today I left.

    This noisy highway isn't exactly my favorite place, but maybe I can find a more peaceful side road. Just because my memory fails me every now and then, they put me in that “home.” I hate it. The doctors say I have Alzheimer's and that I can't live by myself at my house any more. I was doing just fine until I got lost that time.

    Say, this gravel road is much nicer, I must have turned off the highway without realizing it. I can smell newly mowed grass, wood smoke and someone's backyard barbecue. The houses are farther apart now, and I'm getting into farm country.

    There's a white horse!

Zitz!

That's what we kids used to say whenever we saw a white horse while we were out driving in my dad's old Ford. And we used to read the Burma Shave signs, too.

THE BEARDED LADY
TRIED A JAR
NOW SHE'S
A FAMOUS MOVIE STAR
BURMA-SHAVE

How can they say my memory's gone if I can remember things like that!

     This is the one of the most enjoyable walks that I can remember, it's warm, a nice cool breeze is blowing through the trees, and my arthritis hasn't bothered me at all. In fact, I feel better than I have in years. I think I could walk forever.

     Sometimes when people come to visit me at the home and I don't know who they are, they get upset and cry. I try to remember them, but to me they're strangers. Other times, I remember my family when they visit. The doctors say I'm getting worse, but I don't believe them. No matter what they say, I can still remember lot's of things, like the music from the ice cream truck when it came around the corner of our block when I was a little kid, and my first kiss.

    I must have taken another side road while I was day dreaming, and this one is even prettier. There's grass growing between the tire tracks and the trees on the sides are almost touching overhead. It looks like the road ends here in a grassy turn-around. The moving sunlight and shadows on the ground are so mesmerizing that I think I'll sit against this tree and rest for a while. There are birds singing melodies that I've never heard before, or maybe I just don't remember them. It's cooling off as evening falls, but I'm warm and comfortable.

    I'll just sit here for a while and enjoy the sunset.

    I can remember everything now.