Reading to women in the nursing home wasn’t meant to be this hard

“IF she still hasn’t found a dress, give up and buy her a roll of garbage bags. Golda, it’s not your responsibility to go to every store in the city.”

“I hear. Listen, Mirel, I’m at the Jewish Home, I gotta go.” Golda gave her phone a dirty look before dumping it in her bag and pushing open the double doors. Why did she ever bother asking her older sister for advice?

Golda slowed her pace as the automatic doors slid open. She’d always wondered why the home had two sets of doors — climate control? Security? But for her it signaled entering a realm where peace and serenity reigned. As she entered the clean, classy lobby of Beaumont Jewish Home for the Aged she felt the tranquility enter her bones.

Classic, understated decor, seating areas placed just so, and the fish tank! Could Golda be 53 years old and admit that she loved that glorious fish tank against the back wall? Enormous fish with colors so vivid they looked like they’d been painted. The aquarium epitomized the calm, quiet beauty she found here every Tuesday morning.

“Yonit, how’s your day? Any new names for me today?” Golda beamed at the receptionist.

“Tuesdays are always good days because I get to see you!” Yonit returned Golda’s smile as she triumphantly waved a paper at her. “Here’s the list. It looks like all the regulars, plus a new one. Naomi Baum, room 237.”

Golda’s ears pricked. Fuzzy, old memories came into focus as she remembered her first landlord as a newlywed. That Naomi Baum from decades ago hadn’t had a nice word to say to Golda in the entire three years they’d lived in her basement. She seemed to enjoy making Golda’s life difficult.

Due with her second child, and in the middle of finals when their lease was up, Golda had implored Mrs Baum to extend the lease just a few months, but Mrs. Baum had been insistent that she absolutely must do renovations and couldn’t wait one extra day.

With childbirth — and now moving — nonnegotiable, Golda had given up on finals. She’d never managed to make it up and ended up dropping her accounting degree. Every now and then, Golda would imagine life if she’d just been able to take those tests.

Waving her hand as if to swat away the memory, Golda laughed to herself as she walked past the fish. Certainly this was a different Naomi Baum.