​NONFICTION  -
   with a focus on the Pandemic 
Gold in Golden Gate Park   -   Barbara Applegate                 

He Used to Bring Me Flowers
by Cathy Fiorello

My son visited briefly last night. He dropped off a 12-pack of toilet paper. Over the years he has shown up at my door with flowers, potted plants, chocolates, none of them more appreciated than last night’s delivery of toilet paper.
 
We stood six feet apart. I yearned to hug him. Yesterday was the anniversary of his daughter’s car crash. He needed a hug. Instead, I told him what I had done earlier in the day in memory of her. I put eight eggs and a half gallon of milk in a plastic bag and hung it on the doorknob of the ancient Chinese woman who lives directly across the hall from me. I rang her doorbell, then disappeared behind my own door, as apartment dwellers do. We don’t speak the same language; words have never been needed between us.
 
My son was pleased to hear that. “That’s something Jenna would do,” he said. We live in stressful times; we comfort each other in any way we can. I sent him a message this morning telling him that my linen closet is packed to capacity with toilet paper. My wine rack, on the other hand, has many vacancies. I know he will do the right thing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Find your passion and follow it!   -  Oprah Winfrey.  
​
Cathy Fiorello's  passions are food, Paris, and writing. A morning at a farmers’ market is her idea of excitement and visiting Paris is her idea of heaven. And much of her writing is about food and Paris. She worked in publishing in New York, freelanced for magazines during her child-rearing years, then re-entered the work world as an editor. She moved to San Francisco in 2008 and published a memoir, Al Capone Had a Lovely Mother. In 2018, she published a second memoir, Standing at the Edge of the Pool. Cathy has two children and four grandchildren. Her mission is to make foodies and Francophiles of them all.
Other works in this issue:
Nonfiction
Life in the Time of Covid    
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Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University​.​
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University (OLLI at SF State) provides communal and material support to theVistas & Byways  volunteer staff.