A Brief Introduction

All you said was “Hello” and I was lost, unable to reply: you were the young wife of a local and rather older dignitary and me a junior staff member of the charity where your husband, the patron, had arrived to share the glories of his documented kindness. He was the man of the hour: a celebrated figure and pleased to be so. You his gentle wife, and “gentle” is the only word that comes to mind when I think of you, touched my heart as you walked past my life. 

We were both prisoners of expectations formed by the world around us, fulfilling duties without regard to harboured dreams: you had that “ Trapped” quality people radiate when they become the sum of other’s expectations. I had as well,or at least I think so.

Perhaps I was wrong, but I sensed a recognition not felt by me in recent adulthood. I will move on through life, filling the roles I can afford to fill, without influence apart from the ability to please but in that moment I did not feel alone. 

I hug this thought repeatedly , and your kindness is like the autumn sun. The beauty of a life can remain unspoken, dreams kept secret, but for that fragmentary moment, to a man living on the edge of solitude, you brought a sense of harmony.