Friday, November 6, 2009

Driving Ms. Mamie

Mamie’s been having back trouble, but Mamie isn’t one to take pain pills, or to take pain lying down. She says that, in the morning, she can’t straighten up. Since she’s already walking humped over, and she has to bend to make her bed, she makes her bed while waiting to straighten up. Now, that’s a “can-do” attitude. She figures she can work through most of life’s adversities, but she has seen a doctor about this back problem. The doctor prescribed physical therapy and a bone density scan.

Junior used to be Mamie’s chauffeur and companion for these appointments. Since Junior’s death, she’s been driving herself to therapy. But she agreed to let me drive her to what she thought would be a doctor’s appointment with her bone scan – only because she says that, with her poor hearing, she may not be hearing everything the doctor says. I arrived at the appointed time, and she wasn’t quite ready because she had already had two visitors and had made and canned a batch of muscadine jam. She gave me a jar of jam, and she was right; it was a pleasant color.

When Mamie was ready, she handed me the keys to her new car; she had her whole route mapped out. We’d go to the bank to deposit a check, and then we’d have lunch. Her choice of lunch venue was a place where we could get “something light” -- Captain D’s – where she insisted on paying for my meal because the bus driver is supposed to eat free. I guess in some universe fried fish and hush puppies are light – as long as you have slaw instead of fries.

After lunch, we swung by Wal-Mart for me to pick up a few things, since we had time to kill. We then headed for the clinic. Upon arrival, Mamie realized that we had a half hour before her appointment, so she had me backtrack to the post office to mail payments for her bills. This mission accomplished, we went back for her test. After her scan, she wasn‘t happy when the doctor didn’t have time to burn off a skin cancer while she “was there anyway.” Before she left, the clinic did give her an appointment for this procedure to be provided in a week, closer to her home.

We now had two choices: home or another adventure. Mamie had read in the Co-op newsletter about the biggest vineyard in Tennessee, which happens to be between where we were and where we were going. We detoured to check this out, and Mamie noted their methods of pruning for use on her grape vines.

One last stop at Dollar General in Tellico because they “have nice birthday cards that are less expensive than anywhere else.” Mamie was appalled that the price had gone up to a dollar from fifty cents, so she only bought one instead of the two she’d gone in for. She says she’ll write her own verse in a plain card for her second birthday buddy. She doesn’t like that prices keep climbing in this bad economy. Mamie raised a family on hard work, frugality, hope, and prayer. She knows a thing or two about making ends meet.

I told Mamie that I intend to spend a lot of time with her so that she can pass down to me all the knowledge she’s amassed over her almost-ninety years. And since she’s still acquiring wisdom, I may have to become her permanent chauffeur.