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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The Slice

Something I never thought I’d see

Though she has not shown interest in it in recent months, I renewed my mother's subscription to the newspaper.

I guess it's because I can't get my mind around the idea of her being without a daily paper.

She will be 98 this spring. Her generation read newspapers. It was second nature.

Some of my earliest memories involve her sitting in our living room, looking at the morning paper. We also got an evening paper for years.

But now she is kitten weak and frighteningly frail. She sleeps much of the day.

Each afternoon, when I stop by the nursing home, I see her copy of the paper still pristine from lack of handling.

We've had the talk. You know. Should I discontinue it?

She has given me her permission to do so. But I just can't seem to do it.

It has nothing to do with my occupation. If my late brother, a carpenter, were still alive, he would be equally astonished to think of mom not looking at the paper every morning.

So I'll keep renewing her subscription. Perhaps, with her OK, I will start relocating her copy to some public place at the nursing home.

Or maybe I'll just keep noting its unread presence in her room each day and not say a word about it.

The list of things she can no longer do has grown long in the last couple of years. Spending time with the paper is now one of those things. She's tired and fading away.

Still, I want it to be there for her.

Some things are out of my control at this point. But seeing that a fresh, clean morning newspaper is brought to her room each morning is still something I can make happen.

It's not much. But there it is.

She's always gotten the morning paper. She always will.



The Slice

The online home for Paul Turner's musings and interactions with disciples of The Slice.