Sue

I worry about my wife, who spins out her days in the memory ward of the nursing home three blocks away, a victim of Lewy Body dementia.

She doesn't eat much, and seems bright only when company comes. She taught English for half a century, and has many friends across the literary world. She wrote several books, won a PEN award and a Spur, and helped numerous authors launch their careers. She did two well received PBS documentaries, one on Ernest Hemingway's sojourn in Montana, and one on Dorothy Johnson.

We talk sometimes of those she knew and loved, such as Dorothy Johnson, Craig Johnson, Valerie Hemingway, A. B. Guthrie Jr. I was with her a few years ago when we put flowers on Dorothy Johnson's grave in Whitefish.

But now time ticks by, and she stares out of her alley window.