L

       Four  friends named Linda (Kot, Kaufman, Jordon, Quintera), one Lea, one Lorraine--such Lovely "L"s in my life who read this random blog of mine and whom I love....

       And Lemons--my favorite fruit, good on almost anything....

       And LOSS--which I'm thinking of today because a friend of mine--a year older than me--has temporarily lost so many words and chunks of memory.

       Yesterday, Cecelia and I visited our friend who's suffered a minor stroke. She was sitting up in her hospital bed smiling when we walked in, apologizing that she couldn't remember our names.  Her body works fine, her arms and legs, though she isn't allowed to walk without assistance.  As we talked, she spoke very slowly and haltingly and was frustrated by her inability to find the words she wanted.  Or she'd start telling us something, and trail off, saying, "I lost it...."

       To lose memories, names, or words must be terrifying. One minute you can shape a sentence, the next minute you can't.  You mean to say "flowers" and you say "games" instead. You want to make a phone call and can't quite remember how.  A stroke snaps the threads you've always counted on to connect one thing to another.

       When someone loses something, it's human nature to want to give them something else, anything, to fill the void if only for a minute.

       "Are you hungry for anything in particular?" we ask.  "Ice cream?"

       "I've lost my ability to taste," she replies.  Then she laughs, "Maybe I'll lose some weight at least!  That would be a good thing."