Maggie was my trainer when I volunteered for a crisis hotline in 1977. Although she was 30 years older than I, we became close friends and colleagues. Maggie and her husband, Peter, came to my wedding. Whenever Maggie and I went out to lunch, I\u2019d say hello to Peter. But I didn\u2019t know him at all outside of these brief encounters and Maggie\u2019s stories about their life together, first in war-torn England, then fleeing the Soviets in Prague, then in America.<\/p>\n

When Maggie was stricken with Alzheimer\u2019s, my interactions with Peter became a little like the change in shift between the live-in caretaker and the respite help. \u201cHow is she doing today? Will she be able to order off a menu? Does she still know who I am? Have there been any repeats of the time she tried to get out of a moving car? How are <\/em>you doing?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, fine, thanks,\u201d <\/em>Peter would reply, always the stoic and dignified immigrant. Occasionally I would hear frustration in Peter\u2019s voice as he persuaded Maggie to put on her socks. Or maybe he just spoke louder because Maggie was losing her hearing as well as her mind.<\/p>\n

Whenever I would return from my brief outings with Maggie, Peter would say, \u201cShe always seems in better spirits after she sees you. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maggie died seven\u00a0years ago today, but I have kept up my visits. Every few weeks, Peter welcomes me into the home he and Maggie shared. He is as heartbroken today as he was when she died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready to die, too,\u201d my new 94-year-old friend tells me. \u201cBut Maggie wouldn\u2019t want me to be the kind of person who stops getting dressed, stops washing, sits around doing nothing all day. So in the meantime, I\u2019m keeping busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in the meantime, we talk\u2014about his life in Prague as a multilingual intellectual and journalist before the Nazis came, about his service in the British Royal Air Force, where he met Maggie when stationed in her home town. We talk about Maggie, about politics, about his children and grandchildren, about my work and family.<\/p>\n

What a priceless inheritance Maggie has left me.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

What unexpected treasures have you inherited?<\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maggie was my trainer when I volunteered for a crisis hotline in 1977. Although she was 30 years older than I, we became close friends and colleagues. Maggie and her husband, Peter, came to my wedding. Whenever Maggie and I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Day 9 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge: \r\nI is for Inheritance","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,349],"tags":[38,97,229],"class_list":["post-1018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-a-to-z-blogging-challenge","tag-love","tag-friendship","tag-grief"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2F8Ch-gq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1082,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions\/1082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}