March 31--clip joint

We always kept the fingernail clippers in a little dish on the mantle over the fireplace. I never really gave it much thought. I just grabbed one out of the dish whenever I needed to trim my nails, and generally put it back when I was done. I assumed Arlina did the same, since every once in a while a new set would show up, and she was generally in charge of that kind of stuff.

Once when she was really sick, toward the end, she asked me to clip her nails. I got up and walked over to the dish and started to grab one of the clippers.

"No", she said, "not those".

She directed me to a little zip up case in her drawer in the bathroom. So I got it, and inside was a set of clippers, and not the cheap ones I always used, but really sharp ones. I asked her about it.

She kept the good ones for herself, and when she was done with them she would put them in the little dish for me to use.

Almost a year and a half later, and it still surprises me that she would do that.