{"id":15023,"date":"2018-12-01T01:49:11","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T07:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=15023"},"modified":"2018-12-01T09:42:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-01T15:42:53","slug":"visiting-the-memory-care-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/15023","title":{"rendered":"Visiting the Memory Care Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My grandmother said\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0he only ever cried once,<br \/>\nwhen his mother died,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0briefly as a light<br \/>\nrain even then. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Today I don\u2019t think<br \/>\nhe knows me until he\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 tucks his chin to his chest<br \/>\nand weeps,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 says he wants<br \/>\nto go home.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He drinks<br \/>\ncranberry juice\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 from a styrofoam cup<br \/>\nand my 3-year-old\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 watches him<br \/>\ndelightedly, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0drinks when he drinks.<br \/>\nIn the far corner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a woman lies<br \/>\non a ration\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of sunshine,<br \/>\nbig body curled up confident, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0cat-like.<br \/>\nAnother approaches,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 berates us<br \/>\nwith profane words,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 exhorts us<br \/>\nback to work.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My grandmother<br \/>\nsays she once managed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 an airplane<br \/>\nproduction line, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0implies there was something<br \/>\nin the metal,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 seeds of dementia.<br \/>\nWhen my mother\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 was growing up,<br \/>\nmy grandfather spent\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 evenings in the garage,<br \/>\nbuilt a P-40 fighter plane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 70% to scale,<br \/>\nflew it himself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I hold<br \/>\nthe day\u2019s disturbances\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in my hand like stones,<br \/>\nrun my fingers over them\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 until sleep takes them,<br \/>\ngives me other\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 memories of being<br \/>\nin class again \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0staring into Old English<br \/>\nmanuscripts with students:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 them noting<br \/>\nthe strange writing,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 long trains of thorny letters<br \/>\nrunning margin to margin,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 words cutting into words.<br \/>\nMe telling them\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 someone will come along<br \/>\nand piece out\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the units of thought,<br \/>\nadd punctuation \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and white space,<br \/>\nwill find the 4-beat lines,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 lay them down in a shape<br \/>\non the page,\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0give it a title.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/14986\">Ginger Hanchey<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My grandmother said\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0he only ever cried once, when his mother died,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0briefly as a light rain even then. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Today I don\u2019t think he knows me until he\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 tucks his chin to his chest and weeps,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 says he wants to go home.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He drinks cranberry juice\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 from a styrofoam cup and my 3-year-old\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1704,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[54],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3Uj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15059,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023\/revisions\/15059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}