Notes from suburbia: Labor Day 2004

Notes from suburbia: Labor Day 2004
I just got off the phone with Matilda. I told her she should not feel alone and we all knew what a huge project this move is for her. I told her just call me anytime & I'll come down. I think she's frightened. Who wouldn't be? At 91 you'd have to suspect you're making your last journey. I've always thought she was something special. It's sad she never had children of her own. Her first husband couldn't father children because he was sterile, having had mumps as an adult, & he didn't want to adopt, even though a baby was available to them. In those days it was easy to do a private adoption. There was no legal abortion & if a teenager got pregnant, often they turned to adoption. You didn't have to worry so much about drugs & violence in the life of the unwed mother. But her husband wouldn't do it. He died at a young age of a sudden heart attack & Matilda was left a widow. I think she was in her 50's when she married her current husband. I was a child then but I remember he was divorced & had 2 grown sons who people weren't too fond of. They spent about 5 years in Japan (he was a bigwig at a fortune 500 company), then eventually moved to myrtle beach. They've been there at least 25 years, maybe longer. They're isolated, he's ill, she's alone. When they get up here I'm going to try to take her to lunch when I can. He can stay home & watch CNN, or whatever it is he watches.