Her Room

When my mother came down with Alzheimer's and needed to be cared for, Pascal came to live with us. I gave her a spare bedroom. Then, after my mother died and Pascal became ill herself, she stayed for a while before she suddenly disappeared. I know that she is in a private hospice somewhere in Sacramento being cared for by her aunt, Mary Elizabeth McLaren, a former Navy nurse.

Pascal left me a brief message: While I am still able to travel, I am going back to California to live out the rest of my life as best I can. Thank you for all that you and your family have done for me. I will love you all -- I will love you, Naomi, my dearest love -- even after death. Your dearest friend, PM.

We looked for her for a few months but then decided that what she wanted was to be left alone to die in peace. And so what I did was to turn the room she used when she stayed with us into a place in which we could remember her. I live alone now and yet I don't feel lonely. I believe her spirit is with me just as I believe the spirit of my mother is with me. This is all I have to say.

Naomi Fujiwara
New York