Sunday, May 12, 2024

Sunday, May 12, 2024

    The scam story is getting worse by the minute. I checked my credit card receipt. Where I had agreed to pay $200 a month for two years for products, the receipt says I only purchased a one-year supply, which would be $400 a month.  There is no company listed at the bottom of the receipt. It’s just an email address. This sounds like outright theft. I planned to cancel my credit card.

   I spoke to my Hanai sister, Jean, for over an hour today over three phone calls. This is a record. Usually, she’s busy doing something; a five to ten-minute call is a long one. She is joining groups in her retirement community. She belonged to the French Club and one other. She noticed there was no political discussion group, which was her primary area of interest. She and one other person organized one. The first meeting was for planning; in the second, someone gave a talk on the healthcare system in the USA. Jean was scheduled to talk on the mental health care system for the third meeting. She worked in the field as a lawyer advocating for patients. She knew the system in New Jersey inside and out. She wrote an outline and was well prepared, but then she went blank when it was time to speak.  I think it was nerves.  She was not used to experiencing nerves. It’s a new experience at eighty-two. She’ll get her bearing.

   Then I got a call from Damon to wish me Happy Mother’s Day.  He told me he and his wife planned to come in July and that Shivani, his cousin, and Mike’s niece, may come then, too. He won’t stay in my house, which is sad but no longer devastating. I’m slowly adjusting to living alone and having no one in the house. He said his cousin, Mike’s niece, Shivani, would come around the same time. They would overlap, so I would have time alone with each group. I texted Shivani to tell her her boyfriend and his son were welcome, too.

   Damon call with Shivani was on Facetime.  He said she looked radiant. The last time Shivani looked that way was before her husband got sick and died about eight or nine years ago.  I am so happy for her. I saw a recent picture of her on Facebook and reacted similarly. 

  I told Damon about the scam.  It’s better that I tell people what I did than hide it from them. Exposure kills shame if it doesn’t make it worse.  I’m not very ashamed, just a little. There is no question I’m more vulnerable because of my age and that wisdom-killer loneliness. 

    I met with third-grade M. She was in great spirits. She chose to work on Stuart Little. She remembered what had happened when we read the story two weeks ago, while I didn’t. I love it when the kids can do something better than me. She was engaged and lively today, which was quite a contrast to the last two weeks. 

   I met with Adolescent D. We continued with the Gating Game. He had to guess a logical word for the beginning of the following sentence. It took a while before he made the leap. I kept telling him he just had to be logical, not correct. He finally took the leap and guessed THE.  That was an excellent guess and sort of no-brainer. It still took great courage for D to go out on a limb like that. My objective is to teach intellectual risk-taking plus checking the validity of the guess. Poor students often guess and don’t check and then are devastated.