Page 50 of Kate & Frida

From the smelly community room at the Whispering Pines Nursing Home for the last time

8/17/93

Dear Frida,

Don’t beat yourself up about Niko. And definitely don’t tell Kirby! Sweep that hunky mistake under the rug and move on. As for a copy of a lost poetry collection being less important than making the cover of Current , I bet that student you’re helping disagrees.

Life is a giant seesaw. I can hardly believe how much it changes from one letter to the next. Bumpa is asleep for the night, and I suppose I should go home and write to you there. But I feel like staying a little longer to commemorate the Very Last Letter I ever write from this place. Farewell! Sayonara! Adios!

Mom and I got to talking on her last visit about how she hates leaving because she knows she won’t be back for a week. It was like a lightbulb flashed on. Why in the heck is he in a nursing home up here? It’s where he was taken after the hospital when we hoped he’d eventually go back to his trailer. But he’s never going back to his trailer. We have to accept that. So why isn’t he down in Olympia where she can visit him every day on her lunch break and weekends? Guess what? Bing-bang-boom! She found a new place. He’s moving next week! You should have seen the grin on his face when she told him. He had his teeth in, and he looked like his old self.

Basking in joy,

Kate

P.S. You bet I’ll send a copy of Are You There God? for Kirby. And it’s totally (not crossed out) sweet that he read Ramona the Pest for the Ramonas.