Geezer talk

 

 

 

 

I was studying this netting laying on the Gloucester Fish Pier, when a familiar Toyota pickup rolled to a stop behind me. I heard the passenger side door open and some rustling around.. I turned to see Mike (not his real name) looking for something in his back seat.  He pulled out an aerial photograph of Gloucester Harbor taken in 1937. He had shown me that picture three times before. I'm cool with repetition though. Lord knows I repeat myself. Most times, since I'm talking to geezers, they've already forgotten what I said and so it's like a brand-new story to them. When I'm talking to youngsters (like my children for instance), it's a bit more problematic in that they probably remember the last time (or three) I talked about a particular topic. I feel like I should take notes when I talk to youngsters so that I can refer to them when next I speak with them..  In any case..  Once Mike and I talked about the picture for a respectful period of time, we got to the meat of the conversation.. Mike just finished cancer treatment - bladder cancer this time - he's had skin cancer before that required the removal of one of his ears.. He told me about his treatment program and how he was faring with the chemo and radiation.. (remarkably well). We talked about why he didn't go with the surgery route. "So hard to keep that catheter clean. It always gets infected. My friend went that way... died not from the cancer, but from the infection from the catheter..  We also talked about end of life issues.. Mike seems to be a pretty independent soul.. I don't know if he would countenance tons of people fussing over him during his last days.. So - it didn't come as any surprise that he had already done some brainstorming on this.. He saved some Oxy from a previous procedure. His plan (if he needs to do it.) would be to crush up the Oxy in water and drink it.. I cautioned that if the meds were expired they might not work as well as he'd like.. I also mentioned that sometimes when people take a bellyful of Oxy, they get nauseous and end up puking everything up.. I told him - "You might want to look into this approach a little more.. You don't want to end up a little buzzed, and alive, and with puke all over you.." We talked about firearms as a possible way of ending things.. Not an option for him. He felt it would be too messy. I told him I personally would never use a gun, because I'd be afraid of missing and end up with a bullet scar up the side of my face that I'd (forevermore) have to explain to everyone.. He laughed..    We talked about other topics too - like the recent Hollywood movie filming that went on at the pier. Mike was not thrilled.. It messed up parking for him.. The pier is one of his places to hang out...  We also covered the increasing regulation that lobster fishermen are coming under at the hands of the whale watching industry..  Our talk ended with a discussion about children and how things change over the years.  What made this talk remarkable for me, is that Mike sought me out and drove his Toyota over to where I was taking pictures of netting. He'd never done that before. Maybe the cancer and what he imagines will come along with it is weighing heavy on him. Who better than an almost-complete-stranger to talk things over with?

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