A última tontura / The last giddiness [Pt-Eng]

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(Edited)

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Hoje de manhã, quando regressei a minha casa, vindo a pé do ginásio, como habitualmente, abri a minha caixa do correio...

E tinha lá um sobrescrito. Não era uma factura para pagar, nem sequer correspondência do banco, ou mesmo um carta com selo... Era um envelope branco, algo pesado, que tinha escrito no seu exterior como remetente o primeiro nome da filha de um vizinho, e como destinatário o meu primeiro nome...

Não calculava o que poderia conter. Mas sabia, que recentemente, há menos de duas semanas, o meu vizinho, que já tem uma certa idade... julgo que 84 anos feitos recentemente, tinha caído nas escadas interiores do prédio. Não era a primeira vez que o senhor, depois dos tratamentos hospitalares, se sentia "mal" e com a quebra de tensão, caia... Já tinha acontecido em casa, durante a noite, há cerca de 1 mês, na rua. Não era novidade. O senhor A. é um daqueles velhotes com muita energia e que nós dizemos que é rijo. Nada o parecia abalar ou quebrar.

Mas desta vez foi diferente. Uma vizinha nossa deu conta da queda do Senhor A. nas escadas, pois ouvi-o gritar, e veio em seu auxílio. Após o colocar numa posição confortável, e verificar que não havia hemorragias visíveis, chamou os meios de socorro.

Os bombeiros chegaram e levaram o meu vizinho para o Hospital aqui perto. A notícia veio mais tarde. O senhor A. tinha fracturado o colo do fémur. Necessitaria de cirurgia, e iria ficar hospitalizado até ao dia da cirurgia, porque necessita de tratamentos médicos regulares num serviço especializado.

Passados 4 dias, o meu vizinho foi operado. Não consegui chamada para o seu telemóvel, mas a vizinha que avisou os meios de socorro ficou a saber em que hospital estava internado, e quem serviço tinha ficado. Ele já tem alguma idade, e por vezes já se atrapalha com o seu telemóvel. Apesar de ele ter já um smartphone, por vezes, quando me apanhava a entrar ou sair do meu apartamento, e durante as nossas conversas, pedia para lhe explicar algum procedimento que precisava de ajuda no seu telemóvel.

Fora isso, tinha as conversas habituais, de alguém que não compreendia a sociedade em que estamos, e que não lidava muito bem com as faltas de respeito... Havia mesmo alusões a outros tempos, em que Portugal ainda era governado por um ditador. Eu não acompanhava esses devaneios dele, como é obvio, e tentava mudar o assunto, para que ele não se enfadasse a falar do mesmo minutos infindáveis.

Morava sozinho há muitos anos. Desde que a mulher falecera perto de 1990, não tinha por perto mais ninguém. Sua família próxima, suas filhas, estavam emigradas para o Luxemburgo, deslocando-se a Portugal apenas uma vez no ano, isto quando não era o senhor A. a ir visita-los. Conhecera há muitos anos o país onde suas filhas estão, e não tinha problemas com a língua francesa.

Um homem solitário, e algo ressequido pelas agruras da vida. Longe de tudo... até de uma realidade que ele teimava passar ao de largo...

Hoje, como disse no início, o envelope de sua filha anunciava a sua partida de regresso a casa. As obrigações laborais assim o exigem. E despediu-se de mim, deixando a chave do correio da casa de seu pai. Nesse mesma carta que estava no envelope, disse que teve que tomar uma decisão difícil, mas a mais lógica. O senhor A seria colocado num lar. Teria apoio do qual precisaria, e conseguiria fazer a fisioterapia de recuperação.

Estava também nesse mesmo sobrescrito três facturas de vários serviços, que a filha pensa que ainda não tinham sido pagas pelo seu pai. Deixou cem euros, para eu poder as pagar. Despediu-se de uma forma calorosa e atenciosa.

Senti que muito provavelmente já não terei o meu vizinho de regresso. Que o Natal de este ano já não o convidarei para beber um licor, o qual ele recusa sempre, e devolve com a oferta de garrafas de vinho do Porto. Que eu acabo por não as aceitar, pois também é raro receber visitas.

Vivo sozinho. No paralelismo que é difícil não estabelecer, acabo por ser como que inundado de um sentimento de solidão...

Desculpem o desabafo de hoje...

This morning, as I walked home from the gym as usual, I opened my mailbox...

And there was an envelope. It wasn't a bill to pay, or even correspondence from the bank, or even a letter with a stamp... It was a white, somewhat heavy envelope, with the first name of a neighbor's daughter written on the outside as the sender, and my first name as the recipient...

I had no idea what it could contain. But I did know that recently, less than two weeks ago, my neighbor, who is already of a certain age... I think he was 84 recently, had fallen on the stairs inside the building. It wasn't the first time that he'd felt “unwell” after his hospital treatments and, with a drop in blood pressure, he'd fallen... It had already happened at home, during the night, about a month ago, in the street. It was nothing new. Mr. A. is one of those energetic old men who we say is tough. Nothing seemed to shake him or break him.

But this time it was different. A neighbor of ours noticed Mr. A. falling down the stairs, because she heard him screaming, and came to his aid. After getting him into a comfortable position and checking that there was no visible bleeding, she called for help.

The fire department arrived and took my neighbor to the nearby hospital. The news came later. Mr. A. had fractured his femoral neck. He would need surgery, and would be hospitalized until the day of the surgery, because he needs regular medical treatment in a specialized service.

Four days later, my neighbor was operated on. I couldn't get through to his cell phone, but the neighbor who alerted the emergency services found out which hospital he was in, and which service he had stayed at. He's already quite old and sometimes fumbles with his cell phone. Although he already has a smartphone, sometimes when he caught me entering or leaving my apartment, and during our conversations, he would ask me to explain some procedure that needed help on his cell phone.

Apart from that, I had the usual conversations of someone who didn't understand the society we're in, and who didn't handle disrespect very well... There were even allusions to other times, when Portugal was still ruled by a dictator. I didn't follow his musings, of course, and tried to change the subject so that he wouldn't get bored talking about the same thing for endless minutes.

He had lived alone for many years. Since his wife had died around 1990, he had no one else around. His close family, his daughters, had emigrated to Luxembourg and came to Portugal only once a year, when Mr. A. wasn't visiting them. He had known the country where his daughters were for many years and had no problems with the French language.

A lonely man, somewhat parched by the hardships of life. Far from everything... even from a reality that he stubbornly ignored...

Today, as I said at the beginning, his daughter's envelope announced his departure for home. Work obligations demanded it. And he said goodbye to me, leaving the key to his father's post office. In that same letter in the envelope, she said that she had to make a difficult decision, but the most logical one. Mr. A would be placed in a home. He would have the support he needed, and he would be able to undergo physiotherapy for his recovery.

Also in that same envelope were three invoices for various services, which the daughter thinks her father had not yet paid. He left a hundred euros so that I could pay them. He said goodbye in a warm and thoughtful way.

I felt that I probably wouldn't be seeing my neighbor again. That this Christmas I won't be inviting him over for a liqueur, which he always refuses, and returns with the offer of bottles of port. Which I end up not accepting, as I rarely receive visitors either.

I live alone. In a parallel that is hard not to draw, I end up being flooded with a feeling of loneliness...

Sorry for venting today...

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Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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6 comments
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Are you close enough, as a friend / neighbour to visit Mr A in the home? Maybe he would like to see a familiar face? Homes can be very daunting places.

I used to live next to an elderly lady in London, her only daughter lived in Geneva and didn't visit often, until the very late stages when she was admitted to hospital and passed away. Old people living alone are a society issue in all countries and one that we'll all probably face sooner or later unfortunately

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You are about right in your thought, P.
I have already considered it to visit Mr A in the home. His daughters couldn't visit him so often has they wish. That I'm sure of it.
I'll reply his daughter letter by email, send her some news about the bills that I have already paid yesterday, and asking for the address of the home.
Probably I'll arrange with my upstairs neighbor, who helped him in the first place, and we visit him together.

I think that he will enjoy to see some familiar faces there. You are abou right.

This is a theme that is so sensible to me...

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Sorry to hear about your neighbor, as we get older as humans we're more prone to bad things like that happening. Sounds like falling was going to become a chronic issue that would probably kill him, but going to a home doesn't sound like something all that enjoyable either. Getting old just plain sucks, especially living alone. I live alone but I'm only in my 50's.

He's lucky that fracture didn't kill him, poor guy. At least it wasn't a hip fracture which would have been worse. I guess we had best take of ourselves, no other choice!

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Getting old just plain sucks, especially living alone. I live alone but I'm only in my 50's.

Yep. this is a issue that is very "important" to me, since I live alone, and I don't have kids or wife. Almost in my 50's, but I must confess that it kind of scares me the path that is front of me. I'll hope for the best, and prepare for the worse. There is nothing else that I can do, right?

Have a great weekend!

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As someone who lives next to a number of older people and are friends with them, I couldn’t recommend visiting them and giving them a few hours of your time and attention! That will make their whole day, week and likely month.

Those situations where they fall I’ll and end up in a facility are tough. Getting old is hard enough but being isolated is brutal.

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