The Honest Courtesan

After Grace was too infirm to work regularly any more, starting about 2013, I supported her completely until she started collecting social security in July of ’23; even after that, her check simply went “into the pot” as all of our income did in the days when we were both working.  And though she never complained (and in fact used to brag to her doctors about what good care I took of her), I wanted to be sure she didn’t ever feel too dependent on me; she was not an overly prideful person, but I feel every adult needs as much independence as is practically possible.  So we agreed long ago that she should have $400 a month to spend on anything she wanted, no questions asked, above and beyond all of her strictly-necessary expenses that I paid.  She used it to get audiobooks, things she wanted from Amazon, special treats at the little convenience store on the highway, tools and parts for her projects, and stuff like that.  One of her long-term health problems was arthritis, which she had suffered from since her mid-forties due to a very serious motorcycle accident in her twenties; sometime in 2018, she decided it had become severe enough that she needed a cane.  But rather than have me buy something purely functional, she decided to get herself a genuine shillelagh from a craftsman in Shillelagh, Ireland, specifically because it was a weapon in addition to being a walking aid.  That stick was symbolic of her whole way of looking at aging: while she didn’t deny the practical need for assistance in getting around, she was damned sure not going to use a walker or anything similar, and insisted that anybody who “messes with my little angel” (as she had invariably referred to me since 1998) would receive the heavy end of her shillelagh.  And if I dared point out that she was no longer capable of fighting off a determined grandmother, she would shake that stick and say, “we’ll see!”  She remained feisty and crotchety until the end, and her prized cudgel is still standing where she left it, in the corner behind her desk where she could easily reach it.  And as you can probably guess, I have no intention of ever moving it from that spot.