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My Grandmother, the Bag Lady
我的祖母，一位提包女士
Patsy Neal
帕齐·尼尔
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.
我们几乎都见过那些无家可归的老太太们背着装有全部家当的口袋或纸袋在城市的大街小巷里游荡的画面。
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.
在几个星期前我惊讶地发现，我89岁的祖母也成了“提包女士”中的一员。在我进一步往下叙述之前，我最好先说明我并不是在电视上见到祖母的境况，而是在我母亲家里，一次面对面的接触让我发现了她的苦楚。母亲的家漂亮、舒适、安全，营造着中产阶级的家庭环境’桌子上放着精美的瓷器，炉子上烤着火鸡和鸡肉。
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.
祖母的境况使我伤心得无以言表，因为对于一个89岁的老人而言，实在不应该提着所有的家当四处游荡。能活到这个年纪已经足够了，无须再增加这样一副重担，把自己拥有的最后一点家当塞进足以容纳其微薄资产的包里。
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.
祖母成为一名“提包女士”不是一夜之间的事。这几年她都是在疗养院里度过的，起初她还能回家小住，后来由于年纪越来越大，行动也越来越不方便，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.
无论在家停留的时间有多短暂，她最大的快乐就是在屋子里慢慢地转悠，爱怜地摸摸所有东西，花好几个小时翻看抽屉和衣橱。那时，我还不明白为什么她要翻箱倒柜地找出自己所有的东西。
