A little something I wrote in honor of Betty White's birthday. She would be 102 today, January 17. This is my take on the girls in more recent times, and it ignores Dorothy's marriage to Lucas Hollingsworth at the end of the show.
Picture It: Miami, January 2009
"What the hell, if we do have to go to a nursing home, let's all go together."
– Blanche, episode 4x04 "Sophia's Choice"
This morning, Dorothy was sitting on a sofa in the nursing home's lounge area, reading, when Rose joined her. Rose was glad to see a book in her friend's hands, for the sight of Dorothy sitting on a sofa reading was so familiar that they could've been back home on Richmond Street – never mind that they were both older now, with more wrinkles and solid gray hair, never mind that Dorothy had a walker parked beside her.
"What are you reading, Dorothy?" she asked.
Dorothy said nothing, but she held the book up so that Rose could see the cover.
"Dreams from My Father," Rose read aloud. "Ooh, that's the book by our new President."
"Mm-hm, I want to get it finished before his inauguration." Dorothy read for a little longer, then set the book down in her lap with a contented sigh. "You know, I think I'm going to like this President. And it's been a long time since this country had a President that I really liked."
"And his wife is just beautiful!" Rose exclaimed. "It's been a while since we had a really beautiful First Lady, too. Of course, I do think Laura Bush is pretty."
Dorothy thought Laura Bush was pretty, too, but she despised her husband's politics so much that she wasn't about to admit it. She picked up her book again and said, "Rose, honey, you also think George W. Bush is smart."
"Morning, girls," Blanche said, joining them on the sofa with a cup of coffee. "I was just visiting Lester. Did y'all know he's been moved to the non-ambulatory unit?"
The non-ambulatory unit of the nursing home was quite different from the residential unit where the girls lived. It was more like a hospital than a home, and once patients were admitted there, they usually never left.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Blanche," Rose said, and Dorothy pursed her lips in sympathy.
The girls had suffered a lot of losses in recent years. Sophia had passed away, and all three of them had cried like they'd lost their own mother. Stan had died, too, and as much as Dorothy had fought with her ex-husband, she'd shed a few tears over him. Blanche's brother Clayton was in hospice care, with his longtime partner Doug caring for him. Several of Blanche's many lovers had passed away, but several of them were still living, too. Blanche had been pleasantly surprised to find some of them in this very same nursing home and still eager for her company. She had recently rekindled a romance with Lester, the old boyfriend who'd broken up with her after Rose nearly shot him in their doorway years ago.
"When I went to see him just now," Blanche went on, "he was... well, any fool could see he was weaker, but he was still sittin' up and talkin' to me. You know, tellin' me how gorgeous I am."
Dorothy rolled her eyes at this but said nothing.
"And you girls won't believe this, but do you know what he said to me? Well, he was tellin' me how gorgeous I am, and he said, 'Blanche, I should've married you.' And I said something like, I didn't think I wanted to get married again. Because I do think would be unfair of me to limit myself to just one man. And do you know what he said? He looked at me, and he said, 'But I like it. I should've put a ring on it.'"
There was a beat of surprise. Rose and Dorothy hadn't been expecting that.
"Isn't that from that new Beyon-see song?" Rose asked, mispronouncing the singer's name.
"Beyonce, Rose," Dorothy corrected.
"Can you beat that?" Blanche asked, with a little laugh. "It's sort of funny, isn't it? I mean, the man is ninety-something years old, he's in a nursing home, but he knows the words to the new Beyonce song that all the kids are singin'!"
"Well, why shouldn't he?" Dorothy asked after a pause. "You remember what my mother always used to say?"
"'For God's sakes, Rose, not another stupid St. Olaf story'?" Rose guessed.
"Ma always used to say, 'I'm old, I'm not dead yet.' And as long as we're not dead yet, we should be enjoying whatever we can in this world, whether it's the latest Beyonce song, or..."
"Or that new Twilight movie," Blanche said. "You know, I think I'll ask the staff to rent it when it comes out, and we can all watch it for movie night. I hear the young fella playin' the werewolf takes his shirt off a lot. I'm lookin' forward to that."
"And I'm looking forward to our new President!" Rose exclaimed. She turned to Blanche and said, "Dorothy and I were just talking about how we're going to watch his inauguration on TV."
"And I want to watch it, too," Blanche smiled. "Or mainly, I want to watch him. That Barack Obama is a very attractive man. Especially by politician standards!"
"It's settled, then, we'll all watch it together," Dorothy said. "And in the meantime, how does the rest of that song go? You know, the one about putting a ring on it?"
Rose paused, trying to remember the lyrics, then she sang in a voice that was a bit weathered with age but still clear and pretty, "If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it. Don't be mad once you see that he want it, 'cause if you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it."
Dorothy went to her room for her laptop – a Christmas gift from Kate and her husband last year – and soon she had fired it up and found a karaoke video of the song on YouTube. Beyonce's dance moves were beyond them, of course, but they could still raise their hands on Now put your hands up. A few other old ladies in the lounge area gathered around and joined in as the girls smiled and sang, thinking about all the things in life that they still had to look forward to.