on dates. Betty liked to travel whenever she could. She’d been to more
countries than Kiera could ever hope to see in her lifetime. Myrtle wasn’t as
wild as the other two ladies, but she was just as much help as the younger
guys. She had a big family and her greatest pleasure was spending time
with her children and grandchildren.
Kiera saw that as more of an older person thing to do. Relax. Read.
Watch TV. Hang out with family. As the tea party progressed and the
giggles got louder, the tittering happened more and more often, and the
jokes got dirtier and dirtier, Kiera realized how prejudiced and ignorant her
view of the later stages of life were. She’d thought that the people she
worked with were the exception. Life didn’t stop just because you were old
and couldn’t do all the things you could when you were younger. It might
be a different pace, but it was still exciting. It was still fun. People still told
jokes. People still wanted to get together and laugh.
Kiera leaned back behind the counter where she’d taken up residence
since the beginning of the tea party. Maryanne was a capable leader and had
things well under control, even in the makeshift setting. She talked for a
little bit about the benefits of tea and the different kinds of tea—white,
black, green, oolong, rooibos—then she let everyone make an informed
choice from lists she provided. They could sample the tea or have a whole
cup. She’d brought her own cream, sugar, milk, sweetener, almond milk,
coconut milk, and a few bottles of things Kiera had never even heard of.
“Harry likes to walk around the place naked. He pretends to be senile to
get away with it, but really, he just wants to show off his bits. He’s quite
proud of them.”
“Oh, sweet Jesus. If you think that’s bad, Oscar bumps into me at least
twice a week just to show me that his bits still work.”
“The nurses think we’ll break a hip if we start dating at our age…”
“Banging, you mean. They’re afraid that we’ll literally bang together and
that will be that. Hospitals, broken hips, heart attacks, you name it.”
