FOR INGRID, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Photo by S. Auberle

Many years ago I volunteered at a nursing home, reading to people who were blind or unable to hold a book. I became good friends with a gentle woman named Ingrid, who was completely paralyed from the neck down. She was an older woman who'd lost her husband some years before, and she'd had no children. I have never, since that time, met a person who so loved life and people. In spite of the fact that she was completely immobile and bedridden, she cherished all the small things we, in our mobility, overlook. She gave me a gift one day--this small scroll, written in Swedish or Norwegian--I don't remember which. And I may have the words wrong, but it seems to me it translated as Remember only the good hours.

Looking back at 2008 in all its joys and difficulties, both universal and private, it seems a good thing to remember...

- mimi