Wednesdays With Jimmy

I just watched Tuesdays With Morrie.
It was a very good movie, but not one to watch when you're sad.
It made me cry. Too close to home, I guess. Plus, I was commemorating a dead friend's birthday.......

My friend Jimmy is in his cancer bed. Had lots of chemo. Body all beat to hell from it.
Wednesday is my day to take care of him while his wife is at work.
I hate to see my buddy like this.
Jimmy is an artist. His work hangs about the house, and each is different from the next, all of it stunning. Right now his fingers don't work too well. He can't even hold his feeding tube anymore or go to the bathroom by himself.
But he can still smile, and he can have friends over.
Even though he'll never taste food again, he can smell it cooking. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but he doesn't complain.

Tomorrow I think I'll bring him a book by Richard Bach if I can find it, called Messiah, I believe. Jimmy turned me on to it about twenty years ago. Twenty years? Geeze!
Anyhow, if I can locate this book, I'll bring it and read it to him.
It's a good story, just like all of Richard Bach's stuff. Remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull? That was Bach.

Anyhow, I'm glad we have the time to spend together. I just wish he could talk better. The cancer is in his tongue now, and makes it very difficult for him to communicate. He hates it.
Used to be he had a notebook to write it out, but like I said, his fingers don't work so well anymore.

Jimmy is so graceful, though, and just smiles as I lift his blankets and shirt to get his tube rolled into a gauze pouch on his stomach. That's where it all goes, folks. Medicine, food, water....... He's on a schedule. Gotta wipe out his mouth with those little green sponges on a stick and some disinfectant.
He hates that! Calls it tough love. He doesn't like it when we make him walk to avoid atrophy, either. He'll actually pretend he's asleep so he won't have to do it. Doesn't work, though.

I hope if I become dependent I can be as patient as Jimmy.

Anyway, don't watch Tuesdays With Morrie if you're already sad. It is a good flick, though, so see it any other time.
It's getting late, and I need to be up early for my Wednesday with Jimmy.

Thanks for listening.