Seen in Passing
We're driving south on Route 206 earlier this morning and get stopped by a light near a small medical arts building. I do what I usually do, scan the cars around us for interesting faces then cast my gaze farther afield to the sidewalk, parking lots, whatever.
That's when I see them: a young couple (maybe early 30s) standing in front of the door to the medical offices. She is crying hard. He wraps his arms around her in the driving rain and she buries her face against his shoulder and sobs against him. Her whole body is convulsed by those sobs and I feel a knot of recognition in the pit of my stomach.
I don't know what terrible news she received inside that dark and scary building but I know exactly how she feels. I've been there myself and the shadow never quite goes away.
Twelve hours later I'm still thinking about her and wondering how her story will turn out.
* * *
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
--Kahlil Gibran
That's when I see them: a young couple (maybe early 30s) standing in front of the door to the medical offices. She is crying hard. He wraps his arms around her in the driving rain and she buries her face against his shoulder and sobs against him. Her whole body is convulsed by those sobs and I feel a knot of recognition in the pit of my stomach.
I don't know what terrible news she received inside that dark and scary building but I know exactly how she feels. I've been there myself and the shadow never quite goes away.
Twelve hours later I'm still thinking about her and wondering how her story will turn out.
* * *
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
--Kahlil Gibran
posted by Barbara Bretton | 6:10 PM
2 Comments:
Me and my baggage would think that she's just been told she can't have children. He doesn't care- he just wants her. Given time, this will still have a happy ending. It's better to think this than be told about her or his cancer or other terrible thing leading to immediate and terrible death.
But at first, I thought they were coming out of the vet's office... but you don't mention an animal, so that wasn't it. And oddly, I am comforted that there was no dangling leash or empty cat carrier.
Georg, we must be carrying the same baggage. That was my thought too.
No dangling leash or empty carrier. I wouldn't be able to handle that either.
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