Tea with Mary

The notes used to be waiting for me in the morning. Tiny swatches of scrap paper with chicken scratch scribbles, telling me how dear I am. Reminding me to put a coat on because it's going to be cold outside and always, always telling me to come and visit soon. Some days I would knock on the door, a towel draped across my shoulder and a freshly washed cup in my hand. "Just stoppped by to say hello," I'd smile, while going back to the suds in the sink, never wondering how loud the silence must be in her world. I had a little Buena Vista Social Club on the stereo and Mary was dozing off to another news program or a re-run of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. That five second hello from me might've just been the only human contact she'd had that day.

In the mornings before I left for work, I'd always drop a note under her door. I'd begin, "Sweet Pea..." That was the name I gave her and it always made her laugh. We had weekly tea together, me and Mary, and her raspy voice and hands shaking from Parkinson's never seemed to bother me much. I introduced her to Lady Grey tea, and she could never remember the name of it when she ran out, but no need. I always had another box waiting outside her door.

Mary is still feisty at the age of 94, but sometimes I still wonder what it sounds like in her world? How loud are the walls that surround her, there in her tiny apartment? Mary loved to play the piano. Said that she dreamed of being a teacher since she was 12. And today, her fingers don't work. Not even to slice a tomato, yet alone to caress the keys of her beloved baby grand. But she laughs. She still has an impish smile and always tilts her head and looks to the floor when I call her Sweet Pea. A darling little girl she is, that 94-year old thing. I guess it's really up to us. How we age. How we perceive things and how we treat others. More importantly, how we treat ourselves. All of it, good and bad, is up to us. And Mary plans to make 100. "That's my goal," she chuckles. "I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet."