Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Her Name is Beloved

She is an optimist and a sweet woman. She massages my neck and encourages me softly with her English accent. She is a newlywed that adores her change of status. Her eyes look softly on her husband as she recalls their first meeting again. Her co-workers warned her not to sit with him because he was strange. We always laugh at this and nudge him.

She had a photographic memory and was a well admired child. She was going to be a veterinarian. There was so much hope for this girl.

but

Her husband has to tape notes on the wall reminding her of the household duties. She gets lost in the city yet she walks at night. She hands out sesame bars to panhandlers.

She stuffs gauze under her eyeglass lens when her eye hurts, a remnant from twenty years ago.

She looks at herself and her usual understanding sours for a minute as she remembers the car accident that changed her neurological patterns. Then she looks again at her husband.

1 comment:

CS said...

What a mix of pathos and sweetness, hope and sadness. Such mystery in life and the turns it deals us.

Thanks for a lovely and thoughtful bit of observation.