Mom: I fell into the trash can again.
Me: You did? How did that happen, again?
Mom: I was trying to move it with the lid open, and well, I kind of fell in.
Me: Are you ok? What did you feel?
Mom: After I figured out I was still alive, I thought it was dark in there.
Yes, that’s a visor pulled over her face. Yes, she is riding a bicycle away from the “Safety Center” with her face covered. Yes, I was lucky to not be in her way.
At some point every woman reads the poem “Warning” by Jenny Joseph. With its famous beginning of “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple,” women are exhorted not to wait until they are elderly to have lives full of color and adventure.
The poem sprang to mind this morning when reading about Venus Ramey, the 82-year-old former Miss America who shot the tires out of an intruder’s car, with a handgun, while balanced on her walker.
What I loved most about the story was the quote included in the Associated Press’ version, “I’m trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another.”
Sometimes the purple just won’t stay away.
© Laura Genao 2007
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Lo Que Dijeron