Post #11 of 40
Giving Up Jeopardy
A few weeks ago, Tom and I talked about what Lenten practice would be good for me this year. I talked to him about our evening routine that had become a little stale - dinner, news, and Jeopardy. I told him that I thought I would give up Jeopardy since we seemed to work or play on our devices during much of the show. Having Jeopardy on was different from watching it and engaging in the clues. So, Jeopardy is off the table for now, and we haven’t even missed it.
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My favorite Jeopardy moments are from summer 2020. In late June, a cast was placed on my foot to keep it immobilized long enough for it to heal from an injury I had sustained while trying a ballet move with middle schoolers in 2018.
I decided to live at my parents’ place (aka Woods on Lake Farm or WOLF) for the month since our Rhode Island apartment was on the second and third floors of an old house with way too many stairs. Additionally, walking Leo multiple times a day would have been next to impossible when we could open a door for him at WOLF.
Thomas and his partner, Marika, were living at WOLF that summer, and my being there for a month would be a good chance to spend time with them as well as with my parents.
Daddy had been diagnosed with cancer a couple years earlier and had endured a painful and complicated surgery in 2019. The treatments, the post-surgery routines, and the COVID restrictions made his daily life a challenge. Mama had broken her femur not long before Daddy’s surgery, but by 2020, she was active and doing more to take care care of Daddy and day-to-day tasks at WOLF.
After getting my cast in Memphis, my sister drove me to WOLF. I settled into the second floor bedroom with the help of an elevator, and Janet brought up a borrowed Keurig and a small refrigerator for my “suite.”
Each day I worked in an unair-conditioned storage area at WOLF where Tom and I had left way too many of our belongings when we moved north. I worked until I was too dirty, sweaty, and frustrated to continue. How did we end up with so much stuff?
Many afternoons, Thomas drove the discards to the dump, and the good stuff to the local thrift shop. When I’d had enough, I would return to the house and welcome the air conditioning, a snack, and a Diet Coke, I’d swish off with washcloths the best I could, and I’d blow cool air from the hair dryer down and around my cast until I heard my dad call up from the first floor, “KATH-EEEE…JE-PAR-DEEE!”
I would take the elevator down, and I’d prop up my foot on the end of the loveseat while he propped up in his recliner. We’d try to respond to the clues Alex Trebek provided. Daddy would say, “I’m not smart enough for this show.” And, then he’d surprise himself knowing the answers (questions!) of whole categories - geography, military, aviation, bridges, antique cars.
When I returned to Providence in August, Tom and I continued watching Jeopardy as we had before.
Right before Halloween in Tennessee, Daddy went into hospice at home - no more treatments, no more doctor visits. We began settling into the idea that he would die within a year, probably six months. My calendar was cleared after Christmas so I could be at WOLF if needed.
Right before Halloween in Rhode Island, I watched snow fall onto the warm ground and mostly melt. While walking Leo on Halloween morning, I slipped on ice, breaking my right (dominant) wrist in two places. The cast would have to wait a few days until the swelling went down. I was about to have the second cast of my life and both within the same year.
On November 3, 2020, the election was all we could think about. After dinner, Tom helped tape and wrap my splint in plastic so I could shower before watching the results trickle in. When I turned off the water, Tom knocked on the door and said, “Eddie called. He asked you to call Janet.” I knew what this meant, but until I made the call, I didn’t really know. I pulled a loose, sleeveless, knit dress over my wet hair, and Tom helped unwrap the taped plastic bag from my still sore arm.
Then I called Janet.
Daddy died in his recliner while watching Jay Leno’s show about antique cars on Youtube.
I flew to Nashville the next day, and Mama and Janet picked me up from the airport. Traveling with a broken wrist - not quite solidly immobilized was challenging and uncomfortable. In addition to taking care of all the business that comes after a death, Mama and Janet took care of me a bit.
The presidential election was called on November 7, giving the three grieving women something to cheer about.
Alex Trebek died on November 8, and I felt the baby scab that had just started forming over my grief get ripped off.
I flew back to Providence a week after Daddy died, and Tom and I continued watching Jeopardy after dinner each night we were home. Eventually, the last episode that Alex Trebek taped was aired.
When the episode ended, I cried, tried to cover the newly-formed scab covering my grief, and replayed in my head, “KATH-EEEE…JE-PAR-DEEE!”