An Afternoon Well Spent

I thought there were a million things I’d rather be doing than running errands with Mam Ma

- By STEPHANIE THOMPSON, Edmond, Oklahoma

OUT FOR ADVENTURE Stephanie and Mam Ma find joy in the errands they run together.

It was one of those days when I prob-ably would have been happier doing just about anything else. I adore 96-year-old Mam Ma, my husband’s grandmother. She’d moved in with us three years earlier. We had plenty of room in our home. And Michael and I didn’t want her in a nursing home if we could help it. Still, sometimes the level of assistance she required could be exhausting. Like today.

It was nearly 2 P.M. when Mam Ma and I set out—after getting her into my SUV, helping her with the seat belt, then disassembling her wheelchair and hoisting it into the cargo area. We had a simple agenda: get her mail-in ballot notarized at the bank, which is a voting requirement in Oklahoma, and then get Covid and flu shots for both of us at CVS. I started the car, wondering if the drudgery ever wore on Mam Ma as it sometimes did on me.

I don’t mean to complain, Lord, but help me through today.

We pulled into the drive-through at Mam Ma’s bank. I'd called ahead so we wouldn't have to go inside. Only now the teller told us its notary had been called away. The closest branch that had another one was in Oklahoma City, a good 20-minute drive away. A hiccup like this could throw off our whole schedule. I'd booked a vaccination appointment a half hour from now. I hadn’t bothered making an appointment for Mam Ma, not wanting the hassle of creating an account for her. I'd thought she could get registered while I was getting my shot.

Traffic crept along. Staring out the window, Mam Ma said, “Leaves changing. Look at that tree!”

I'd only noticed how brown the grass was, but Mam Ma was right: The trees were showing the last colors of summer. “Beautiful,” I heard myself say, switching lanes.