You fall, we haul: Think before you act

Says the sign outside the Manor’s Ambulance Corps.

Jokey warning to the elderly?

Like my nonagenarian mom, who

disdained canes, eventually settled on a rollator, 

plus the inevitable traipsing parade of therapists and aides 

because she wanted to stay in her own home to the last.

“I don’t want to be a burden to my children.”

Always sharp as paint, she gave as much as she could

to the Corps in their annual drives, “They’re volunteers, for God’s sake!”

After her third slipup in a year or two,

they thought her dead weight,

likely eyeing the town’s transfer station,

“Lady, no more calls.  

We got other things to move.

We just can’t come here anymore to pick you up.”

And they left her, just like that 

floored.