I was walking with Tanja earlier today, when—

“Wait? Whuut? Walking you say?”

Yes, Tanja got up on her wonderful legs and walked up and down the hall, her arms resting on a kind of rolling lectern, so that she looked like she might be going room to room to preach her gospel, like some kind of itinerant evangelist of hope and love and flowing, wind blown hair.

For the first walk, the PT walked at her right hand, her arm around Tanja’s waist. They marched down the shorter hall twenty feet, pivoted and returned. Tanja rested on the bed, then did it again.

Later in the day she and I set out but this time she turned down the long hall and we cruised past the nurses station.

“Hey guys,” she called out.

“Look at you walk,” a young man called back. “Hey guys, look who’s walking!”

I feel certain their whoops were at least partially powered by the relief they felt on noticing the impeccable safety technique of her escort. I could be wrong.

The third walk, Tanja doubled down and we made the trip up and back twice. At this point, I was getting a little tuckered out, but I hung in there and at the end of our second circuit, she added a jaunt down the short hall and then brought it back home for the night.

She was last seen watching the Oscars. But even without looking at the votes, I know the award for best performance in a dramatic role goes to the ravishing woman in the open backed gown, Tatiana Berenice Alger, my idol.