There was a pill bottle in the back of my mother’s medicine cabinet with my father’s name on it.
Dad had passed years before. Mom never threw that bottle away.
I found it the month we emptied her house. I opened the little mirrored door above her sink, and it was packed. Aspirin, cough drops, eye drops, and a jar of cold cream older than my grandkids.
That bottle was in the very back. I stood in her bathroom holding it, and I had to sit down for a minute.
I don’t think she kept it for the pills. I think she kept it because his name was on it.
When I got home, I opened my own medicine cabinet. It wasn’t as full as hers. But it was heading that way.
I closed the door and didn’t open it again for a long time. (Longer than I’d like to admit.) A few weeks ago, I finally did.
If you’ve been wondering what to do with old medications, the ones you don’t take and can’t remember buying, this is what I learned. And there’s a good day coming up to finally clear them out.