OK, I know this sounds crazy. But hear me out.
During the afternoon, I sat with Ma Schmidt while her son worked in the shop. And the interactions would have felt … intentional … if I thought that she was of sound mind. In fact I don't think she is of sound mind any longer. But I wonder whether some corner of her brain has its own agenda, and is currently unencumbered by the need to look socially acceptable? So for example:
She asked me to sit on her bed, instead of sitting (as I have every day up till now) on a chair next to her bed.
Then she clutched at the gap where my shirt opens, running her fingers through my chest hair.
She asked, "Put your chest on me." (I declined, on the grounds that I've way heavier than she is, and I would crush her.)
She held my hands and said, "I'll be very happy if you'll sleep here with me." Then she smiled and dozed off into a nap.
These behaviors were all pretty much one-offs, in the sense that they were not repeated on other days. There is another behavior that I don't understand, but which she has repeated on several different days. Fairly regularly, she inserts the fingers of one hand—sometimes both—under the edge of her diaper, as if she wants to pull it off. Maybe she is trying to signal a need to go to the bathroom, but she doesn't say anything about that. Nor does she push her hand all the way into her crotch. she just hooks it around the diaper … and leaves it there. It's very odd.
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