不是老人变坏了
ABOUT 18 months ago, my 97-year-old grandmother went out to dinner with some friends. As Nanna got out of the car, she tripped over her friend Shirley’s cane, fell to the pavement and came down hard on her elbow. Back at home, she headed to the kitchen to get some dessert — “and my left leg just crumpled.”大约一年半前，97岁的外婆和几个朋友外出用餐。外婆下车时，绊到朋友雪莉(Shirley)的手杖，摔到人行道上，肘部重重地摔了一下。她回到家，去厨房拿甜点时发现“左腿有点不对劲”。
At the hospital, the doctors ordered X-rays, but couldn’t see anything wrong. After two weeks of therapy, Nanna was sent home, but she’d made up her mind. After 30 years of living in Florida, 28 of them as a widow, and most of those spent insisting that the only way she’d go back to her native Michigan was “in a box,” Nanna asked her older daughter, my Aunt Marlene, to find her a sunny place near Detroit.
医生给她拍了X光片，但没看出什么问题。治疗两周后，外婆出院了，这时她已做了一个决定。她在佛罗里达住了30年，其中28年是寡居，大部分时候她坚称，她只有“在骨灰盒里”才会回到故乡密歇根，但是现在她让大女儿、我的姨妈马琳(Marlene)给她在底特律附近找一个阳光灿烂的地方。
Last summer, she moved into an independent living facility with access to a range of services and activities. She has her own apartment, with a kitchen, but can eat her meals in a dining hall. After giving her a few days to unpack and settle in, I got her on the phone. How was it going?
去年夏天，她搬进了一个独立生活机构，这里提供一系列服务和各种活动。她有自己的公寓，里面有个厨房，不过她也可以在食堂用餐。在她安顿好几天后，我给她打了个电话，问她过得怎么样。
“Well,” Nanna began. Her apartment was lovely. The food was just fine, and there were all kinds of classes and courses to while away the hours. “Have you made any friends?” I asked, in the same chipper tone I used when my younger child returned from her first day at kindergarten.
“呃，”外婆说。她的公寓很可爱。食物还可以，还有各种讲座和课程，可以消磨时光。“你有没有交到什么朋友？”我用活泼的语气问道，就像我的小孩第一天从幼儿园回来时我问的那样。
There was a pause. Then: “They won’t let me sit at their table!” Nanna cried.
外婆停顿了一下，然后大声说道：“他们不让我跟他们坐在一起！”
“Wait, what? Who won’t let you sit at their table?”
“等等，你说什么？谁不让你坐？”
“You try to sit and they say, ‘That seat is taken!’ ”
“我想坐下，他们却说，‘这个座位有人了！’”
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