Mom has refused to wear the hearing aids she bought three years ago, because the piece that sits behind the ear conflicts with her glasses frame.  My siblings and I have begged and remonstrated with her—we have tired of shouting, and of the 5:30 news driving us from the downstairs—but she just turns red in the face and won’t talk.  She was open, however, to the idea of new and better hearing aids.  Surprisingly, Dad’s medical insurance paid a nice benefit, and she ordered hearing aids that sit entirely within the ear.  “Look at the pretty clouds,” she said.  “Look at all the airplanes!  I can’t believe all the airplanes.”  We finished our errands early, and she insisted on going to the audiologist office an hour early.  “We can sit and wait.”  And I insisted I was too hungry and we had plenty of time for lunch before her appointment.  (I wasn’t going to sit and wait for an hour.)  She relented and tried to suppress her anxiety.  I asked her what sounded good for lunch.  “An egg salad sandwich,” she replied.  “I like egg salad.”  I raised my eyebrows at her, and wanted to remark, You’ve never asked for egg salad before!  Where do you think we’re going to find egg salad around here?  I was thinking of a hamburger.  We opted for a little Vietnamese place next to the audiologist, and wouldn’t you know it, they served an egg sandwich.  Mom loved it.