Maybe because admitting otherwise meant acknowledging things about my daughter I had spent years refusing to see.
Lying in that hospital bed, I began wondering whether I had misunderstood that old argument completely.
“Walter,” I whispered, “did Aunt Lisa say anything else?”
He hesitated.
“What?”
“There was something weird.”
My stomach tightened. “Tell me.”
“She asked me about your glasses.”
“My glasses?”
“Before the accident.”
“When?”
“The morning when it happened.”
Another memory surfaced.
Lisa had been standing in my kitchen.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
“I’m late, and I can’t find my driving glasses.”
“Use the old pair.”
“They’re too weak.”
She’d rolled her eyes. “Just wear your old pair. You can see fine in those.”
I remembered hesitating.
Then taking them.
After that came only fragments—a blurry road sign, a horn, then metal.
For the first time, I wondered whether the biggest mistake that morning had really been mine.
I returned to the hospital room.
“Walter, what did she ask you?”
He frowned, trying to remember. “She said, ‘Does your grandma always drive in those old glasses?'”
“When?”
“A few days before the accident.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know it mattered.”
Neither had I.
Until now.
The following day, I asked the hospital social worker, “Has Lisa tried to get custody of Walter?”
“She’s asked about temporary guardianship.”
“Already?”
“Yes.”
“She has consulted about it,” the woman explained carefully. “Your medical condition raised questions about Walter’s immediate care.”
“What questions?”
“Whether you would be physically capable of resuming full responsibility.”
“Because of the crash?”
“Among other things.”
“My eyesight.”
She paused. “That was mentioned.”
Of course it had been.
When Walter came back that afternoon, I asked, “Did you see Aunt Lisa near my glasses that morning?”
He frowned. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“She was near your purse. I think she had something in her hand.”
“What?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t really watching.”
It wasn’t proof.
But it was enough to keep the suspicion alive.
So I waited until I was discharged.
Lisa offered to drive me home.
I declined and took a cab.
Once home, Walter helped me search again.
“You once put your phone in the freezer.”
“Once.”
“Twice.”
“Traitor.”
Then I remembered the security camera near the front door.
My purse had been directly in its view that morning.
