Oh Sweetheart of Mine

I wake up and open a note, folded nicely on my nightstand. 

I'm Anna. You're 74 and I'm 80. We're married. These are the first three things I want you to remind me of when I enter your room at 9 A.M.. I have dementia so I need the reminders. The nurse will wheel me into your room after I've woken up. Can you hold out on eating so we can have breakfast together?

-Anna Lee Hernandez

I take and consume some pills from a sweet nurse.

Anna shows up at 9 A.M. like she said she would with a nurse pushing her chair. I sit up in bed and read the note again and stutter through the reminders. I leave out the dementia part, of course. Anna nods, smiles and kisses me. I kiss her too and she tastes like toothpaste. 

"I love you, Anna," I say. 

"I love you too," she says. She helps me out of bed and calls me "silly", but it feels good to hear it from her. She makes my bed even though the nurse tries to do it. Anna just says, "wheel me when I ask please" and lets the nurse wheel her while she makes my bed. I grab my walking cane and walk beside them. 

"How did you sleep?" asks Anna. 

"I slept really well," I say. 

We enter a cafeteria together and the nurse pulls out a seat for me and pushes a seat out of the way so Anna can eat from her chair next to me. They serve us refried beans, tortillas, green salsa, over easy eggs, and coffee. I ask for sugar and the nurse is nice enough to bring me some. 

"Thank you," I say. 

I try to shake her hand but she is already seated and looking at her phone. Anna sits next to me and chops up my food for me. That's nice of her so I smile and she smiles too. A Vincente Fernandez tune plays in my head all the while. 

Then we play bingo after our plates of food have been removed. I don't win but I get awfully close. Anna asks me if I want to walk the courtyard with her, and I say yes, of course. She's very nice. 

She talks about growing up in west Missouri. She talks about cold winters and going out to feed the cows. She talks about her mean daddy who used to whoop her real good when she used cuss words. I have to laugh at that. When she asks me, I talk about my mean west Texas daddy so it sounds like we can relate pretty well. I like how she listens.

We have lunch. We take another walk. We watch the St. Louis Cardinals "destroy the Cubs". Or, at least that's how this lady in a wheelchair likes to talk about it. She's not leaving my side but we're having so much fun together that I don't mind. We eat dinner. We listen to a resident play on the piano. That same lady plays a crossword puzzle with me, and then a young man tells us "that's all for the day". It's been a nice day in my book. 

Before the nurse wheels her away, that sweet lady kisses my lips. I blush. 

"What's your name again?" I ask. 

A small tear is in her eye but she brushes it away. 

"The meds tend to fade by this point," the nurse tells her gently. 

The lady looks at the nurse sternly and looks back at me. "It's Anna Lee Hernandez. And please put this note on your nightstand. But don't read it, okay?"

"Anna Lee," I say, smiling. I clap too. "It's a date, miss Anna!"