Barbara J. Hamby

Ms. Little Italy

Our little neighbor across the street is back home and will be a worry for us again. She is also very entertaining, however. She was just over here letting us know her phone has been repaired. She returned from a month at her daughter’s home in Chicago to discover her phone wasn’t working. We tried to help her yesterday to figure out what was wrong with it. Her black eyes snap under her thick black eyebrows when she tells her stories.

She told me about an Italian wedding she attended recently, dancing with her former boss. He was too slow for her, so she started leading. She said he was a good follower and told her she was a good leader. That’s pretty typical of the way she races through the last part of her life. She’s a tiny stick of dynamite. Her two speeds are full ahead or stop, there’s no in between. She also told me she has taken three hard falls recently and her daughter is on her case to get her to slow down. Apparently she is fortunate, as I am, to have strong bones.

She just learned that her best girlfriend since grade school days (she is now 88, I think) has cancer (of the blood, she called it). She is devastated and I can relate to her sorrow, having lost my girlfriend of over sixty years to cancer in 2004. That great loss will be with me for the rest of my life.

From time to time, I’ll have more stories of our little neighbor. Stay tuned.