The Mattress

The mattress is probably 45 years old. Queen size mattress with a box spring, a metal bolt-on frame, and a dark wood headboard. Amma might have replaced the mattress when they moved to the house in Kingston ten years ago but I doubt it. It is definitely the same headboard.

After Appa’s strokes they rented a hospital bed and Amma slept on a cot next to him. Getting the bed was quite easy – the order went directly from the hospital to the medical supply company to Medicare – certainly easier than lying down on random beds in the middle of the afternoon while wearing all of your clothes in the Mattress Discounters showroom. To accommodate the hospital bed the mattress and everything else moved to a somewhat precarious position leaning against the wall in the hallway.

Returning home after Appa died Amma didn’t want to sleep the in bedroom, so we left it alone for a few days. The medical supply company took the hospital bed back and I folded up the cot and put it in the closet. When Uncle Bill came he and I re-assembled the frame in the bedroom and moved in the mattress and box spring so we would have a little more space.

When Uma arrived I switched to the bedroom so she could take the study. The mattress wasn’t uncomfortable, but I still slept poorly amidst a series of bad dreams.