The Cliff

The  following morning, I called my father to see if I could come get him and go to the bank to add me to their accounts. "No, I don't want to do that now." I took a deep breath and asked if we could do it later in the afternoon, "You can call me then."

This was a terrible moment for me. As I told my family at the time, I stood at the top of tall cliff and looked down, I had the clear thought that I was losing my mind, and I considered what would happen if I did. I used to work with homeless people some of whom visited mental health facilities. I mostly liked them, they were quirky, but mostly pleasant. It wasn't a totally unappealing thought. 

But I'm the oldest child and a daughter, I took a deep breath, reached over to my table where the two giant notebooks of forms for the Garden sat. I began to fill out forms. And I thought about what the rest of the day looked like in terms of schedule.