xWhat Stays the SameThis is the one thing that stays the same: my husband got hurt. Everything else changes. A grandson needs me and then he doesnt. My children are close then one drifts away. I smoke and dont smoke; I knit ponchos, then hats, shawls, hats again, stop knitting, start up again. The clock ticks, the seasons shift, the night sky rearranges itself, but my husband remains constant, his injuries are permanent. He grounds me. Rich is where I shine. I can count on myself with him.I live in a cozy house with pretty furniture. Time passes here. There is a fireplace and two acres and the dogs run around and dig big holes and I dont care. I have a twenty-seven-inch TV and lots of movies. The telephone rings often. Rich is lodged in a single moment and it never tips into the next. Last week I lay on his bed in the nursing home and watched him. I was out of his field of vision and I think he forgot I was there. He stood still, then he picked up a newspaper from a neat pile of newspapers, held it a moment, and carefully put it back. His arms dropped to his sides. He looked as if he was waiting for the next thing but there is no next thing.I got stuck with the past and future. Thats my half of this bad hand. I know what happened and I never get used to it. Just when I think Ive metabolized everything I am drawn up short. "Rich lost part of his vision" is what I say, but recently Sally told the nurse, "He is blind in his right eye," and I was catapulted out of the safety of the past tense into the now.Today I drive to the wool store. I arrive with my notebook open and a pen."What are you doing?" Paul asks."Im taking a poll," I say. "What is the one thing that stays stable in your life?""James," says Paul instantly."And I suppose James will say Paul," I say, writing down James."No, hell say the dogs," says Paul, laughing."Creativity," says Heidi, the genius."I have to think," says a woman I dont know."The dogs," says James.Rich and I had a house together once. He was the real gardener. He raked and dug, planted and weeded, stood over his garden proudly. Decorative grasses were his specialty. He cut down my delphiniums when he planted his fountain grass. "Didnt you see them?" I asked. "They were so tall and beautiful." But he was too busy digging to listen. I lost interest in flowers. We planted a hydrangea tree outside the kitchen window. We cut down (after much deliberation) two big prickly bushes that were growing together like eyebrows at either side of our small path. We waited until the birds were done with their young, then Rich planted two more hydrangea trees where the bushes had stood. I dont want to see how big they are by now, how beautiful their heavy white blossoms look when it rains. "I love what youve done with the garden," my friend Claudette says, looking at the bed of overgrown nettles in my backyard. I weeded there exactly once. I want to plant fountain grass out there, but first I need a backhoe.Ri Excerpted from A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
