Who knew there were so many options — for limitations?

“Why don’t you take both tables?”

The saleswoman smiles, showing very white teeth. “This one is more easily portable, but the other is better for bedside use.”

“I don’t need help,” Aviva says brusquely. The woman probably just wants a larger commission on the sale.

The saleswoman moves on and Aviva examines the options for overbed tables again. So what if she does need help? She’s not taking it from that woman.

The one other time she’d come to Big Apple Mobility it had been with Fiona, when they were first making adjustments for Mom. That was a few months back, when the cancer first started affecting Mom’s mobility and she became eligible for a few hours a day of nursing care.

Fiona. Small, tough, experienced. It was only when she knew she could count on Fiona to be there each day that Aviva had been able to move out…. A double blessing that woman is, she thinks guiltily.

She looks again at Fiona’s text. Table that fits over bed or recliner, preferably tiltable. Something Mom can use for eating and reading when she’s in the recliner — which is where she is most of the time.

Aviva blinks, sees Mom in her mind’s eye, superimposed on the dark-green recliner. Is this how she’ll remember her, twinned with the recliner, when—

Stop, Aviva.