October 3, 2015

I worked a Senior Health Fair yesterday morning to recruit volunteers for our hospital.  What a treat to work with this population of individuals.  I really think it has been a good thing for me. 

There were two women who came through the line separately.  They both mentioned that they were looking for additional activities to fill their time...and both had lost a husband within the past six months.  As I talked to them about volunteering and how it was good that they were getting out-and-about, their eyes welled up.

And here is what I appreciate about my new position...I literally could see the years melt away.  They were no longer 70 years old with grey hair and fine lines.  They were twenty years old, thirty years old, forty years old...individuals who are missing their loves wholeheartedly...yearning to speak once more to partners they shared decades with.

In retrospect, maybe somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought it was all tidier when someone has "lived a long life," but you know...it doesn't matter at all.  Because to these women, they had lost their 'Steves' in life...regardless of whether he was 39 or 79. 

And man, when I think about it too much, it breaks my heart that they have a lifetime of memories.  Because it's hard enough with just eight years.

I told one of them that I had lost my husband in March, our eyes met in understanding, and her tears stopped.  And again, age disappeared, and we connected as members of the same grim, but resolved club.