Part 8 (2/2)

”I don't know if it's the move or the idea of a new doctor,” Dot said

Which was true, of course Changing doctors aleighed heavily on ood dozen prescriptions that would need to be filled; high on her list of anxieties hether the new drugstore and the new doctor coher totally without A new doctor alsohabits and lack of exercise and all s she considered nobody else's business It had taken her a long tied to train her Waterville doctor to accept what she told him as true and to write the scripts she believed she needed, including, for the past few years, Paxil, about which I was beginning to hear disturbing stories The new doctor s about the efficacy of all this

”She says she's exhausted fro so much to do,” Dot continued, ”but when I ask her what I can help with, there doesn't see”

”You can't help her worry”

”I also said I hoped we'd be able to keep in touch Caot the impression she's not interested”

”Maybe after she's settled,” I said hopefully, though I was pretty sure their friendshi+p was over Myto resolve things badly than leave theood outcoood friend”

”I'll etically, ”I really like your led to find the right word but finally gave up Either that or the word iested itself, and she was too kind to use it ”Maybe that's why I like her Being your oorst ene I understand”

Later, back on the coast and arram of the new apartment, I told the movers where to put the furniture and stack the boxes of books ”Wow,” said the guy who'dthe place in ”I wouldn't e to tell him to check back in a few months when this very apartment would probably be available Becauseto hate it here We'd looked everywhere, coued us inland She preferred not to live a old people, because all they ever talked about was their illnesses and their newthe next She wanted someplace lively, like where she'd first lived in Phoenix She wanted to feel alive, and for that you needed young people With young people, however, came music and noise and children, and she wanted none of that She couldn't have anyone living overhead Underfoot would be okay, except that she couldn't e stairs, which pretty much ruled that out She preferred apartment complexes but hated subsidized places, because the law didn't allow the next door to some Section 8 nutjob Unsubsidized places she couldn't afford, and she didn't want usup the difference, especially if it was considerable And we knew from experience that whatever she settled on had to be within half an hour fro we'd seen was suitable and, to co lists

The place I thought would be best for her, Megunticook House, was actually in Camden The rents were subsidized, and she clearly qualified The residents were all elderly, and the coe they weren't terribly infirrounds clean and neat, but e pulled in she took one look and said, ”Oh, Rickreally, I don't think so, do you?”

”Could we look, at least?”

She grudgingly agreed, but it was clearly a no-go ”Shabby,” she explained later, ere back in the car ”Did you see how run-down the whole place was? And did you see all the walkers there in the foyer? People who need those should keep the outside?”

I explained that ere now on the coast and the complex was a quarter mile from the ocean, with harsh winters and salt air, well, paint peeled

”I couldn't live there,” she said ”The other place was better”

By this shefacility in Rockland, twenty rounds made it resemble a country club, but this, too, had put her off ”I don't need anything this posh,” she said Inside, the corridors ide enough that theelchairs could pass each other going in opposite directions, and handrails were affixed to all the walls There were endless activities-from wheelchair aerobics to computer classes-and she wasn't interested in any of the independently,” she explained to the lady who showed us around She naturally didn't care about the van that took residents to the supermarket and doctors' offices: ”My son does all that” The h the schedule instantly offended her ”Who eats their main meal at noon?” she said once ere back in the car

”Well ,” I began

”assisted living,home There wasn't anyone there alked without a cane”

”The apartuer over the surface of the stove, and I could tell it had co list”

”Let's keep looking,” she said