休市六月的天像孩子的臉，陰晴無常。突然瓢潑陣雨，一會兒又陽光普照。一個清晨, 老心髒沒有玩兒新開啟的花樣（時不時造反一下, 狂奔亂跳）我穿著件XXL號棉質T恤，舒舒服服去後院賞花。突然，涼風驟起，一朵烏雲就爬到了當頂。匆忙地剪了幾朵花，剛跑進了屋，豆大的雨點就劈劈啪啪地打降下來。

插好了一瓶花，放在餐桌上。我捧了杯咖啡，去自己的小書房裏看電腦，讀了幾遍城裏邊俠的大作《老了，如何活得有尊嚴？》。當讀到她“高興的片湯”裏那句“大多數情況下以健康食品為主，偶爾吃點junk food放縱一下”，就笑出了聲，把我那杯always，而不是偶爾，加奶糖過度的濃咖啡對著博客裏邊俠的頭像舉了舉，輕輕說了聲謝謝。而在藍天白雲下，一望無際的草原上，長發飄飄的邊邊正忙著整理馬具，那匹駿馬已經迫不及待地等著騎士上鞍，好四蹄騰雲駕霧，飛馳而去了。。

出了書房， AE高高興興地謝了我的隨手插花。見他又很有興致地，換了張台布，還把他母親從小的兩件古董玩具放在了花旁。

以上是AE的曾外婆，當年AE母親的外婆送給她親愛的小外孫女卡琳，自己親手縫製的布藝偶--唐老鴨。

AE母親從小的木製玩具- -小女孩和小鴨子。我小時候好像也看到過類似的木玩具。

我請AE給花和玩具照相，自己卻還沉浸在邊邊的博文裏，當時就不禁想，何不寫寫AE的老媽，我婆婆卡琳最後的瀟灑人生和尊嚴呢？

近兩三個月，腦瓜卡殼，敲不出字來，於是在文件夾裏翻出了以上，六月裏的一段心情文字。這裏也一並感謝邊邊，從她的佳作《老了，如何活得有尊嚴？》，得到了啟發，也來寫寫我近距離接觸過的美國普通老人，比如我的兩位老美婆婆, 她們的養老生活和人生最後一程。。

當然，我得先解釋一下，我為什麽會有兩位老美婆婆。

我先生AE的親生父母在兒子高中畢業後，即將離家去外地上大學前的那個暑假裏，在結婚23年後，竟然也加入了美國70年代盛行起來的Middle age crisis的行列，離婚了。後來他倆又各自再婚，重組家庭二十多年。所以AE有兩個媽，一個親媽卡琳，一個繼母艾瑪，我和AE結婚後，也就順理成章有了這兩位老美婆婆。前些年，AE的親媽卡琳在她83歲時謝世了（AE的父母同年先後去世），他的繼母艾瑪現在92歲了，還自己住在她和AE父親比爾住了二十幾年的老宅裏，我也還時不時收到她多年自詡不凡的Elma‘s Poisonous mails（艾瑪毒藥信件）。。

以下是當年，我寫在卡琳追思網站的一段紀念文，有興趣的網友不妨一讀，也可略見一斑，我和AE親媽的婆媳關係。。

Through our lengthy (in-law) complex relationship, Carlene earned my respect for her independent and responsible life style. I also really admired her determination and bravery when she had to face difficult situations, and very hard decisions.

In her last November, even though she was very ill, and as a responsible citizen as she always was, she made a thorough and careful analysis, chose and voted for her preferred presidential candidate. She never laid any burden to her children for tough decisions, such as when she had to give up her car key and sell her home to move into a retirement facility. Even when she told her children and her doctor to stop her medical treatment, she expressed her will in such calm, brave and at the matter of the fact manner. She kept her dignity and took care of her own business until her last day.

I could say Carlene was a very strong-willed American mother-in-law and I was a quite headstrong Chinese daughter- in- law, we had many differences，of course.

Between Carlene and me, however, I respected and admired her in many respects. I learned many good things from her, which I really appreciated.