south_to_north raze we used to see her riding her bicycle. today we saw her for the first time this year. there was no bike. she was just walking. her eyes were hidden behind thick black sunglasses. i almost didn't recognize her at first. she's thinner now. her hair looks different. it's still blonde and short, but it looks real in a way it didn't before. "did i tell you i had a heart attack in november?" she asked us. no. she didn't tell us that. her english is good, but sometimes something small breaks in the middle of one of her sentences. i don't know where she's from. her accent sounds european. swiss, maybe. her voice is soft. but it's strong. like her. "i was on my bike when it happened," she said. "i didn't even know i have a heart attack. someone called the ambulance, and i went to the hospital. there they did the procedure. i didn't know they *have* a procedure. in forty-five minutes, they do the procedure, and then i'm back in my bed. my family has high cholesterol. i was supposed to take a pill for it. i never did. but you have to." she laughed when she said she felt better now than she did before it happened. "i walk all the time. i walk in winter now, even though i hate it. i decide to partner with winter." i told her about the_magnificent_six and all the squirrels who've become our friends. her face lit up. "aren't they darling? and the chipmunks too." she told us about her grandfather. he lived in the green mountains of vermont. he would lie down on his back, his pockets full of peanuts, and the chipmunks would climb onto his chest and wait to be fed. the season she's partnered with will be gone two weeks from now. but she'll be ready for spring. there are pink and white orchids on her leggings. i need to ask her what her name is. 220305 ... raze mimi. her name is mimi. her landlord has been trying to evict her for over a year now. "he's a slumlord," she said. "he lies and says he's kicking me out so someone else can move in, and the person he says is moving in after me is his eighteen-year-old cousin. but i have him recorded saying no one is moving in. i don't think he even has a cousin. so we're taking him in court. i think maybe that's one reason why i have my heart attack. i'm a single mother. i go through a divorce, and then this. i live with my son. he's ... not handicapped, but he has disability, you know? and the doctor says because of all this, now he probably needs medication for blood pressure." she said she didn't want to have to start over again after fighting so hard to keep her home. "i've been here for eight years. i even improve the property. but if i do move, i still come here to walk. like you. things just keep getting worse all the time. but if you knock on the right doors, there can be good things too. i really believe that." she said she's going to have a table set up at art in the park for the first time in two years. "i work with jewelry," she said. "recycled jewelry. i make necklaces. but really, it's neck art. i also paint. i make clothes. i love to create." she drew an invisible arrow to show us where her table will be in june. i followed her finger. all i saw was grass. but i'm thinking about paying to get into a park i'm free to walk through any other time of year, so i can see what her hands have made. 220514 what's it to you? who go blather from