“Has she asked the township assistance office about the winter heating voucher?” I asked, setting the plates on the counter.

“Oh, no, Ron wrote her a check for three hundred dollars yesterday morning,” Judy said, turning around with a damp dishcloth in her hand.

“She has so much on her shoulders with the divorce.

She just can’t catch her breath.”

“It takes time to get settled,” I said.

“It certainly does,” Judy said.

“And Jeff was talking to Ron in the driveway before you got here about taking out a bank loan for a new lawn tractor.”

She set a metal mixing bowl in the dish rack.