My Friend Evelyn

When we moved to Waverly in 1974 and Verl was teaching at the high school, we met Evelyn Harris who was the art teacher. We found we had several things in common, the first being that her husband's name was Verl. That is an unusual name and so to find someone with the same name was kinda fun. We also found out that they were members of our church. They actually had children our age. Through the years we stayed friends and we took them to Utah to the temple one time. Evelyn painted a lot of pictures and made a lot of pottery. I have a couple of her paintings in my house. Her husband died two years ago and they had lived in a retirement center. She has macular degeneration and so is 95% blind now. If she tries real hard and has a good light, she can make out words written with a big black marker. She has about 10 pictures hung in her little assisted living apartment. This week, she is showing two of her pictures at a art gallery for people who are over 55. She is going with me to take the pictures to the gallery today. She is on oxygen most of the time so will be taking her tank of O2 with her. She is 88 and her mind is really sharp. I get a little put out with the people who take care of her as they treat her as if she were senile. Just because you are old and a little forgetful, goodness I'm 65 and forget a lot of things, it doesn't mean you are senile. She has numerous health problems and her medical staff doesn't listen to her. She has become like a mother to me and I spend sometime with her each week.

Anyway, what I want to tell you is that her family almost ignores her unless she goes to the hospital. Her two sons, especially one of them, never call her or come to see her unless there is some other reason to be in town. She has two granddaughters in town and she very seldom hears from them, unless she calls them. She has several great grand children and was invited to one of their weddings this summer. Her son and daughter-in-law were here for the wedding and didn't even come to visit her at her apartment. She is so sad about this, but tries not to think about it and let it bother her too much. But I know it does, especially when no one is around. I'm hoping that that doesn't happen to me although sometimes I think if I didn't call or email my family, I wouldn't hear from them that much.