Quirky Memories

There's a peculiar lump on the bottom left-hand corner of my bed, where Wendy taped foam rubber over the sharp metal edge of the bed frame, after she had gouged a piece of flesh from her shin for the third time since we got that bed. It had replaced the colonial four-poster we bought when we first came to live in Ottawa, but sold after she fractured her hip and for a year or so she was more comfortable in twin beds where I couldn't accidentally bump her hip if I rolled over. Wendy cared about the comfort of her lower extremities. I could run on for hours about bed socks. She disliked getting cold feet. When we lived in New York we took the subway to Kennedy Airport one cold winter morning, to discover when we got there that our flight had been cancelled because of the snow. We had a long wait in the architecturally exciting but draughty TWA terminal, and plenty of room to stretch out in the nearly deserted departure lounge while we waited several hours for the airport to reopen.  Wendy solved the problem of icy cold feet by slipping off her shoes and putting her fleece-lined gloves on her feet before she stretched out for a nap. It was an arresting sight that pulled up passers-by for a second look. I've always regretted not taking a photo as a permanent record of this eccentric but effective fashion statement. Wendy could never swallow pills as the rest of us do. Wrapping them in a spoonful of jam was a waste of time. Even when crushed and mixed with honey she somehow separated the fragments so the honey slipped down, leaving the unacceptable crumbs of the pill on her seemingly prehensile tongue. The only way that worked was to shove the pill down her gullet on the tip of her finger. It always made her gag, but it worked, though strangers who observed this procedure marvelled at it and probably remembered it for the rest of their lives.

Wendy, padded with several cushions, as Father Christmas at the Head Start kindergarten Christmas party, early 1970s

            A successful cure for cold feet
            495 Island Park Drive, Ottawa
            c 1971-72