Meds on the windowsill

Birthdays, holidays or just spending quality time...

All my family's homes hold memories and many come to mind.

Sitting on my great aunt's porch watching the parades...

Taking forever to choose a game and settling for charades.

My cousins and I trying to stir up Nana by turning on some rap

She would humor us though, and shake her finger at us saying "AT AT AT!☝️"

Crab feasts, cookouts and holiday dinners...

All the elders had a signature dish that was sure to be a winner.

Eat, drink and be merry, while we laugh and reminisce...

Good food and fun has always been the main premise.

All these things are fine memories but there is one that I've left out...

It's the elephant in the room and one rarely talked about.

All the medications. The ones on the windowsills...

Blood pressure and cholesterol meds seem to be the most common of the pills.

I have always noticed it since I was very young.

There'd be various decor around, but then pills and not just one.

It was so normal to see that I kind of just ignored it.

However, sometimes I wondered why they didn't just store it.

Why the windowsill and not the medicine cabinet or in a drawer or even a basket?

Then it dawned on me later as I sadly stared at my Nana's casket.

I remember she would always say before eating her meals,

"What time is it right now? I gotta take my pills!"

They had to stay handy. It was urgent, DIRE.

To live freely without pills was my desire.

Growing up I said that I would do better...

That my blood pressure would stay normal and that my joints won't depend on the weather.

Not I! No blood pressure issues, Heart Disease or bad cholesterol...

No Lipitor for me! No Norvasc or Atenolol.

My people suffer from this too much...

Surely there is another alternative, perhaps something natural that they could do...

I believe most people think like that until the patient is YOU.

Now I'm an adult with issues myself that are very real.

I contemplated all this while looking at the meds on MY windowsill.