Friday, March 19

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March 19, Friday - The usual Friday. Bought groceries - $18.00 A little warmer today, but not much. That bunch of girls I work with are goofy. Sure have a ball. Marv had supper ready, as usual. He's so good.

March 20, Saturday - Got my hair fixed this morning. Stopped by mom's, then to work. Turned in my keys - feel as if I'm leaving for good.

March 21, Sunday - Carol's shower. Bud and I went to church, home for lunch, and here I am in Room 521. Didn't even get to my room before they started taking blood.

Mom is just treading water here. She's headed for the hospital for a radical mastectomy on Sunday, and she's just trying to hold it together. If she played one game of solitaire in front of the TV that week, she played a hundred. Mom usually reserved solitaire for the times when she didn't want to deal with dad. It was her mute switch. It was her sole foray into the world of the passive-aggressive. The sound of riffling cards makes me nauseous to this day.

Knowing my mom, the idea that she had to turn in her keys would have felt like jumping off a cliff and into the void. She loved her job - most of the time - and it kept her centered and grounded. Kroger was like home to her, the people she worked with were like family. This was my mom, in a nutshell. She created a new family in every setting. People depended on her, and she relished her role as the rock.