Aunty's day out

When I arrived in the morning to get her, aunty was pale and stressed out. "I've had loose motions all morning," she said.

She was scheduled to meet with social security and they were going to reevaluate her benefits. The letter said, "If you don't show up for the interview, your benefits could be cancelled." That is their standard lingo, but it made aunty very nervous.

She was solemn and quiet as we loaded her walker into my car and as we waited in the lobby of the social security office. When her name was finally called, I went with her and told the lady at the counter that she was hard of hearing. Some of the questions I relayed to aunty by yelling in her ear. For the rest we had to call her out-of-town daughter Dushy who had been on stand by for just such an eventuality. The counter lady was kind, aunty's benefits were re-approved and we were done quite fast.

What a relief! There was a new spring in aunty's step, a new gleam in her eye.

As soon as we got back in the car, she said, "Now let's go to lunch!"

"Lunch!!  Not today aunty! You have an upset stomach and Dushy will be mad at me if I take you out to eat."

"Don't worry about her! Come on - I'm hungry and there's no food at home."

"I'll take you home and cook some rice for you."

But aunty was bound and determined, so I finally had her call Dushy to get her permission. Dushy tried to convince her to go another day.

"There's no..thing at home Dushy. Only rice and rasam!  That's all I'll have at the Indian restaurant. On-ly rice and rasam." Aunty's voice was half cajoling, half plaintive. Dushy gave up.

We duly made our way to the Indian vegetarian restaurant where some light rice and rasam was sure to be on the menu.

What menu!  They had just opened for the day with a loaded buffet of steaming south Indian and Indian Chinese vegetarian dishes, fried and curried, steamed and sauteed, spicy and sweet. Aunty made a beeline for the buffet and loaded up her plate, leaving no item behind.

"All that fried stuff will make you sick aunty!"

"I'll go home and take some medicine."

I made a half-hearted attempt to act like a responsible custodian of an elderly person, "But what will Dushy say?!"

Aunty swatted away my words like one would an annoying fly, "No need to tell her!"

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