More than Peaches

It started as a typical day. I went to visit a friend – Ann. I sat on the bar stool at her kitchen counter and talked while she prepared lunch for her twins. I watched as she popped off the lid on a jar of home canned peaches. “The girls just love peaches, Ann mentioned.”

My first thought was, “Who wouldn’t?” My personal favorites were Elberta and Red Haven. It had been a long time since I’d had a tree ripened peach. I tried not to drool.  I watched as Ann placed some fruit in the blender and turned them into a peach puree.

We then went to the front room where her adult twin daughters were waiting on cots while watching television. They responded with smiles to their mother’s voice. Ann fed Karen first, starting with a high protein supplement. When she was finished with that I watched her carefully administer the peach puree into the feeding tube connected to her daughter’s belly. That scene will forever be frozen in my mind.  Realizing those peaches would never touch her lips, I watched, holding back my tears – grasping for the first time what those peaches really symbolized.