The Wandering Widow

I had lived in Las Vegas, Nevada for twenty-six years with my husband Alvin when he suddenly passed away. Five years before Alvin died I had a three level fusion on my spine, in 1996, and I couldn’t, and still can’t, walk without the help of a walker. I had to rely on him and the rest of my family to take me to the doctor’s or to go shopping for food. That was in 1996.

After Al was gone, it became trying on the children. My only sister Suzie, who lives in Florida, insisted I should not live alone in my dream home. She was right. I knew I needed a change, but what should I do? I investigated a few options, like having someone move in with me to cook and take care of my needs, but this was not a good idea since I didn’t know anyone I could trust to live with me. Next option was to sell my house and move to a retirement facility. 

The first option was out, and I started the hunt for a new home. My daughter Sue and I visited many facilities and finally I decided on one. I put my house on the market and within two months it was sold. I had an estate sale and my friends Geri and Jane came to my house and helped me sell my furniture and various items that I would not have a place for at the new apartment. These friends have since moved all around the United States, but I did have a get together with them when I went back to Vegas a few years later.

The day the moving truck came, I broke down and cried.  I was devastated to leave the beautiful house that my husband and I shared, but I had to do what was best for me. I rode in my daughter’s car and we followed the moving truck to my new home.

It was a gloomy and wet day, the day I moved to a retirement living apartment complex near Henderson, Nevada. It had everything I needed. They served three meals a day and had a bus with a lift, which made it easy for me to get to the doctor’s office. I knew that I definitely would not be alone, since there were about one hundred and fifty people living there.

My studio apartment was cleaned once a week, my laundry was done for me, and I would have plenty of new friends.  It did not take me long to get into the routine of my new home.

It was about two weeks after moving in, that I was standing in the lobby talking to one of the women. It was pretty common after eating a meal for the residents to leave the dining room and congregate in the lobby. While I was talking to this woman a man came over to me and whispered in my ear, “I bet you can’t count how many times you have been in my bed this week.”  I was so startled by this remark and I said, “What did you say?”  He had the nerve to repeat what he had said. My response was, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”  Then I turned my back on him and he walked away.