I have had more than a few conversations with grandpa over the phone by now. I love speaking with grandpa over the phone. He tells me how he’s doing. He does it by reporting the lunch menu at the senior’s center, or by explaining the effects of the recent weather. And in this way, grandpa is constant. I know he will tell me the weather, and I want to hear it. I think I might be his favorite person to talk to on the phone.
In our interviews, I picked up on a certain rhythm he uses which he rarely deviates from. He asks about me, asks about my husband, asks if we have enough. I tell him a few things, then ask about home, ask if he’s being looked after.
Once our how do you dos are done, he has a story to tell me, and I begin recording the things he says as he says them.
Today the cadence of the phone call is off. I ask him, how are you? and he says
he mutters
unwillingly
I get so lonely.
a place for becoming 