My mother’s house looks exactly(精确地，恰好地) as she left it.
我母亲的房子看起来和她离开时一模一样。
Two novels sit by the armchair, their pages neatly(整洁地，整齐地) marked for book group(读书会). Pinned to the noticeboard is a shopping list in only slightly shaky(颤抖的，不稳定的) writing, with “FRUIT!” in urgent(紧急的，急迫的) capitals, and “make soup” underlined. The sole outward signs of something missing are her cats twining needily around me – loneliness having finally overcome their innate horror of visitors – and the one thing I can’t bear to look at, which is the empty hospital bed marooned bleakly in the sitting room.(唯一能看出少了什么的外在迹象，是她的猫在我身边依赖地缠绕着——孤独终于战胜了它们天生对访客的恐惧——以及一件我不敢看的东西：客厅里那张凄凉地搁置着的空病床。) Delivered by social services when it was deemed(认为，视为) she could no longer manage stairs, it is now stripped(被剥去，被撤去) bare, awaiting collection. Another family will be needing it.
扶手椅旁放着两本小说，书页上为读书会仔细做了标记。布告板上钉着一张购物清单，字迹只是略微颤抖，上面用紧急的大写字母写着“水果！”，还划了线强调“做汤”。唯一能看出少了什么的外在迹象，是她的猫在我身边依赖地缠绕着——孤独终于战胜了它们天生对访客的恐惧——以及一件我不敢看的东西：客厅里那张凄凉地搁置着的空病床。那是社会服务机构在她被认定无法再上下楼时送来的，如今已被撤去铺盖，等待回收。另一个家庭将会需要它。
This is not my childhood home – my parents moved here only a few years ago – but it’s the one, I suppose, where childhood formally(正式地) ended. Washing up(洗碗) at her kitchen sink a fortnight(两星期) ago, looking out at the same scarlet(猩红色的) fuchsia I remember blazing(熊熊燃烧的，绚烂的) in the garden when my father died, it struck(突然想到，使突然意识到) me for the first time that soon I would no longer be anyone’s daughter. What I didn’t know then was that the loss of both parents would feel less like the end of a relationship and more like its transition(过渡，转变) to a new stage, of finally being able to see them clearly as people in their own right(凭自身资格，独立地).
这不是我童年的家——我父母几年前才搬到这里——但我想，正是在这里，童年正式结束了。两周前，我在她厨房的水槽边洗碗，望着那株猩红色的倒挂金钟，我记得父亲去世时它就在花园里绚烂绽放，那一刻我第一次意识到，很快我将不再是任何人的女儿。我当时不知道的是，失去双亲的感觉与其说是一段关系的终结，不如说它进入了一个新阶段——终于能够将他们视为独立的个体。