Fair compensation

So much of my days are consumed with being a secretary for Tom: disability, health and travel insurance claims, work and personal emails, returning phone calls, writing updates for family and friends, reading him comments on Facebook posts.

I don’t mind. It’s easy work and the compensation is very high.

Like today, I got to take a nap with him.

It was the quiet hour, right after dinner but before evening meds are passed. Mr. Benson, Tom’s roommate, was pretty quiet after I cut up the meat on his dinner plate.

I curled up on Tom’s left side, with his good arm around me, my head cradled on his muscled shoulder. I have missed that so much – just his presence, the strength and calm that he emanates.

And even now, with a stroke weakening his entire right side, he still feels so reassuring. 

It is the greatest relief just to be next to him. 

We fell asleep.

Two tall people in a single hospital bed doesn’t leave much wiggle room. We were wedged in together taking up every bit of that mattress between the siderails.

We were comfortable. We didn’t mind.

Today’s penny is a 2014. That’s the year I started taking naps again.