Ronyx
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I was awakened when Susan came into the room. “Are you awake, Phil?” she asked. I sat up and grumbled, “I guess I am now.” “I’m sorry,” she said as she reached behind me and fluffed my pillow. She looked at the clock. “It is almost seven-thirty. What would you like for breakfast?” “The usual,” I guess. She grinned and asked, “Mountain oysters?” I lay back and laughed uproariously. “Thanks,” I finally said. “Now, I’ll be afraid to eat what you bring me.” She laughed as sh
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I was thinking her sister's husband. I should have been clearer.
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President Reagan's response to AIDS was abysmal. The disease was first identified in 1981. However, like you said, his administration viewed it as a 'gay disease' and was slow to deal with it. He didn't acknowledge it publicly until 1985, and it wasn't until the end of his presidency in 1988 that he took some steps to stop the spread. By then, it was too late for many. I've lost five dear friends to AIDS. Side note: Dr. Fauci was one of the early pioneers in the AIDS battle. He has devoted over 40 years to AIDS research and the development of antiviral therapies. Play safe. There is still no cure for AIDS.
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Susan did not come into the room the next morning. A young aide cleaned up my room and took my breakfast order. I was worried because we had set up a meeting with Colin at ten to discuss her son. I was afraid something had happened at home to prevent her from coming to work. Jason came into my room at nine to take me to the PT room. The room was filled with patients, and they kept calling out for him to help them. When he wheeled me back to my room, he apologized because he hadn’t spent muc
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Please don't overthink the visions in the window. I'm simply using them as a means to foreshadow an upcoming 'story.' An unknown young boy signifies he will become an important character in another of Phil's Window Stories.
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Weekends are boring here. All I do is sit up in my bed and watch television. I don’t attend physical therapy since Jason has the weekends off. Most of the regular nurses and aides are replaced by weekend staff. I never know who will come in to tend to me. Most of the time they are rude and impatient. It used to upset me, but I have become used to their bad attitudes. The laptop is a blessing. I was able to get the password to the Wi-Fi from a young aide who came into my room reading somethi
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I was awakened in the morning by thunderstorms. I could see lightning coming through the curtains followed by loud thunder. A young aide came into the room to see if I was okay. I asked, “How bad is the storm?” She replied, “They have a tornado warning for our area.” We both jumped when a bolt of lightning hit just outside the window. The thunder was deafening. Suddenly, we heard tornado warning sirens. The aide pulled back my sheet and told me to sit on the side of the bed. “I have to
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When I awoke the next morning, there still appeared to be an uneasy tension in the air. People were rushing around, and no one seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. Mrs. Sullivan again didn’t show up. I had a different aide than the day before. She had attended to me in the past, and I found her very rude. She quickly took my food order and left the room. Around nine, Jason showed up to take me to my physical therapy. Even he didn’t seem to be in his usual jovial mood. After about ten
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Colin looked at me and smiled. He had been smiling since Gary came over to the table and introduced himself. I know what he was thinking. He thought that I could renew my friendship with Gary. Even I wasn’t opposed to the idea. At one time, Gary and I had become good friends. It would be nice to be able to talk to someone about the ‘good old days.’ Colin seemed interested, but I don’t think he could relate to some of my stories. “He seemed like a nice guy,” commented Jason. “Are you going t
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When Jason came to get me for my therapy session the next morning, I was curious how the lunch date with Colin went. However, I wasn’t sure that he knew I was aware of it. I’m not one to play matchmaker, but I was very interested in getting them together. They seemed like a perfect couple. I’m already very fond of Colin. He’s the grandson I never had. He even admitted that he considers me like a grandfather. I’ve known Jason for several months. He’s a hardworking and dedicated trainer. I’ve
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This is such sad news. Comsie is the main reason I became a gay teen author. I was an avid fan, and when I began to write, he read my first stories. He encouraged me to continue. He saw the potential that I didn't know then that I had. It was a great honor when he featured me in the May 2021 issue of his Imagine Magazine. He was a G.O.A.T. and I will miss him dearly.
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I awoke not feeling well. That’s one of the problems getting old. You never know what kind of a day you’ll have. One morning you wake up and feel like you could run a marathon. The next morning, you can hardly move. I looked over at the window and saw a young man running past. It was me as a teenager. It seemed like I had been running my whole life. When I was about thirty-five, Bob Seger released a song called Running Against the Wind. Sometimes, late at night, I would listen to it on my s
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I described Jason in the first chapter: The worst part of my day is my physical therapy sessions. Jason, a rather young black man in his mid-twenties helps me out of bed and takes me in a wheelchair to the therapy room.
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“You’re killing me!” I shouted. Jason laughed and said, “Relax, Phil. All I’m asking you to do is take a few steps.” He had helped me from my wheelchair and was holding tightly to a belt around my waist as I attempted to walk a few steps. Usually, I can talk him out of making me walk, but today Jason was persistent. “You’ve been lying in your bed for several days. I want to get you up today.” Even though he was behind me, I knew he was grinning when he added, “You know what they say. If you
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I didn’t see Colin again for two days. I was worried that he didn’t want to continue visiting me. I hoped that he hadn’t given up on me. Every time I look at the window, visions of my past appear. I had just returned from therapy with Jason. He was pushing me into the room in a wheelchair. As usual, I was exhausted from my workout. Colin rose from his chair when we entered. He approached and took the handles to my wheelchair. He asked Jason if it would be alright to take me outside. Jason l
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I'm using the window images as a means to transition from the present to Phil's recollection of his past. Who he sees will introduce his next 'window story.'
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I had a decent night’s sleep. I awoke around two and had to use the urinal bottle, but I managed to fall quickly back to sleep. I think talking to Colin yesterday lifted my spirit. I’ve been in this room for months without any company. Knowing that I would have a regular visitor made me feel good. I know the staff here thinks I’m just a grumpy old man, but I’m not. For most of my life I was well-respected and had many friends. Around the school where I was counselor for twenty-eight years,
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It was a lazy Wednesday summer afternoon, and I was sitting on the porch steps just looking around. My mother sent me outside to play, but there was no one to play with. My friends were at the park playing baseball. However, I had fallen out of a tree a few days earlier and hurt my foot. My mother panicked and rushed me to the hospital because she thought I had broken it, but it was only a bad bruise. I tried to convince her it wasn’t broken, but she wouldn’t listen to me. Now, she’s mad at me b
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When I opened my eyes, the room was dark. I turned onto my side and looked at the clock on the wall. It was only 5:36. “Damn,” I grumbled. I hate waking up so early. I can never go back to sleep, and it just makes the day longer. I sat up and looked around the sparsely furnished room. I had been here at St. Joseph’s Elderly Care Center for almost eight months. And I hate it. It was hard giving up my home that I had lived in for twenty-eight years, but I had no choice. Now at seventy-eight,
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I remember my life now as if I'm looking out a window. Streaks of my life flash by me. I try to open the window and catch them, but the window won't open. So, I sit and watch them, and I wonder did they really happen or was it just a dream? Take a journey back in time as 78-year-old Phil Reid relates his life experiences to a younger man.
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It was a little after seven when I arrived at my father’s home. As soon as I walked in the door, he looked at his watch and told me that I was late for dinner. “We eat at six. Holly was disappointed you weren’t here.” He frowned and added, “You could at least show some respect by phoning us if you are going to be late.” “Sorry, Dad,” I muttered as I headed for the guest bedroom. “One other thing.” I stopped and turned. “If you’re not here for dinner, then you don’t eat. That is a house
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After kissing me, Craig held me tightly in the hallway. We pulled apart when a nurse’s aide came out of a room. We were heading back to Blake’s room when Mrs. Reinhart came out. “There you are,” she said as she approached. She took my hand. “Let’s go someplace where we can talk.” I gave her a puzzled look and asked, “About what?” She didn’t respond. She gripped my hand tighter and pulled me away. “Can Craig come with us?” I was confused why she wanted to talk to me. She was supposed to
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Dad’s car was parked two doors down from my house when I pulled into the driveway. Before I got out, he had pulled in behind me. I got out and walked up to him. I asked, “What do you want me to do?” “It’s up to you, Son,” he replied. “I met you here in case you wanted to come home with me. It’s totally your call.” I gave him a confused look and replied, “You mean for tonight or like move in with you?” We hadn’t talked about it, so I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do. “Maybe for
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I couldn’t believe I had been reunited with my father. Even though I hadn’t seen him in ten years, some of his features hadn’t changed. He still had his dark hair and blue eyes. When I was a little boy, I used to sit in his lap and point at his eyes and ask, “Are my eyes like yours?” He’d laugh and tell me they were. Craig approached and asked, “What’s going on, Seth?” Ty was standing nearby with a puzzled look on his face. I put my arm around my father’s waist and told them, “This is
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