Richard was always asking for more than I could give
He came to our community meal for years before I realized that I was asking something of him, too.
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In the last months of his life, Richard often asked me questions I found deeply irritating. The most irritating was “Are you busy tomorrow?”
I was the mother of a young child. I had a full-time job. I often reached the end of the day feeling that I had emptied myself out. I was desperate for quiet, for solitude, for sleep. Yes, I was busy tomorrow.
Richard had been an engineer at the local mine until he fell into alcoholism, which had deprived him of his career and his family. But by the time I knew him he had drawn himself back into sobriety and regained a life.
