Rebecca did very much wish for George’s presence at this moment so she could tell him the news about her grandmother. Not a stroke or any other event, she had been told very carefully, just a general failure heralded by a rapid shutting down of her kidneys. It was no surprise; Esther Gottesfeld was one hundred and six.

“Should I come right now?” Rebecca had asked Clara, the incredibly kind nursing supervisor at the home, with whom she spoke every week. She visited her grandmother every few weeks, though on a couple of recent visits she had found Esther sleeping so peacefully, like a little child, that she hadn’t wanted to wake her. Of course it would be Clara who would call her now. They had each of them privately imagined this moment for a long time. Clara had been promoted a few times over the years and no longer changed beds or handled all the sad needs of incontinent patients, but she had been in charge of doling out Esther’s medications ever since Rebecca was doing her postdoc, and the staff all knew that Esther was Clara’s special pet. Clara assured Rebecca that she didn’t think anything would change overnight.

“Miz Gottesfeld is sleeping most of her days now, but you know that’s been true since the summer. If you rouse her, she’ll still answer you polite enough,” Clara said. “You know her way. But she’s harder to rouse. Her sleeping is getting deeper and deeper, and she hardly wanted to eat a thing any day this past week, not even her favorites. And she’s hardly drinking a thing. You know we won’t force her, like we discussed, but if she’s not drinking, she’s going to go downhill real fast. Her kidneys are all but failed now, and that’s going to take her down low pretty quick.”

“Did you offer her rice pudding?” Rebecca asked, trying for a moment to make this call into one of the hundreds of insignificant past chats with Clara about her grandmother’s daily details, a kind of call they would not have again and both missed already.

“She took a bite and said it had no taste, that it was tray? What’s that tray word they all use here? She said it had no flavor without you soak the raisins first, and she would give me her special recipe to tell them down in the kitchen,” Clara said with an appreciative laugh.

“Trayfe. Not kosher, unclean.”

“Well, she knows we have that rabbi in here all the time for the kitchen. It’s a clean kitchen.”

“She’s just giving you a hard time, Clara.”

“Don’t I know her by now? But something has changed. It’s just her time. I’ve got a strong feeling about that. I can’t say for sure, you know that. I do believe that if you come by first thing in the morning, that’s when she has some little bit of strength if it’s been a good night, and you wake her, then she’ll be very glad you’re here, that’s when she’ll talk to you, and you’ll see the change for yourself. She hardly speaks to us most of the time now, unless we really force her to say something. It’s just her time’s come, that’s all. She’s going inside herself, and she’s just all tired out now, God bless her.”