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My Grandmother, the Bag Lady
我的祖母，一位提包女士
Patsy Neal
帕齊·尼爾
Almost all of us have seen pictures of old, homeless ladies, moving about the streets of big cities with everything they own stuffed into a bag or a paper sack.
我們幾乎都見過那些無家可歸的老太太們背著裝有全部家當的口袋或紙袋在城市的大街小巷里游蕩的畫面。
My grandmother is 89 years old, and a few weeks ago I realized with a jolt that she, too, had become one of them. Before I go any further, I had best explain that I did not see my grandmother's picture on TV. I discovered her plight during a face-to-face visit at my mother's house—in a beautiful, comfortable, safe middle-class environment with good china on the table and turkey and chicken on the stove.
在幾個星期前我驚訝地發現，我89歲的祖母也成了“提包女士”中的一員。在我進一步往下敘述之前，我最好先說明我并不是在電視上見到祖母的境況，而是在我母親家里，一次面對面的接觸讓我發現了她的苦楚。母親的家漂亮、舒適、安全，營造著中產階級的家庭環境’桌子上放著精美的瓷器，爐子上烤著火雞和雞肉。
My grandmother's condition saddened me beyond words, for an 89-year-old should not have to carry around everything she owns in a bag. It's enough to be 89 without the added burden of packing the last fragments of your existence into a space big enough to accommodate only the minutest of treasures.
祖母的境況使我傷心得無以言表，因為對于一個89歲的老人而言，實在不應該提著所有的家當四處游蕩。能活到這個年紀已經足夠了，無須再增加這樣一副重擔，把自己擁有的最后一點家當塞進足以容納其微薄資產的包里。
Becoming a bag lady was not something that happened to her overnight. My grandmother has been in a nursing home these last several years; at first going back to her own home for short visits, then less frequently as she became older and less mobile.
祖母成為一名“提包女士”不是一夜之間的事。這幾年她都是在療養院里度過的，起初她還能回家小住，后來由于年紀越來越大，行動也越來越不方便，她就很少回去了。
No matter how short these visits were, her greatest pleasure came from walking slowly around her home, touching every item lovingly and spending hours browsing through drawers and closets. Then, I did not understand her need to search out all her belongings.
無論在家停留的時間有多短暫，她最大的快樂就是在屋子里慢慢地轉悠，愛憐地摸摸所有東西，花好幾個小時翻看抽屜和衣櫥。那時，我還不明白為什么她要翻箱倒柜地找出自己所有的東西。
