The Woman
I am walking down a street in a neighborhood, happy with the smells of early summer and the sounds of children playing, dogs barking, and birds chirping. One of life’s many simple pleasures for the healthy and ambulatory. Up ahead I see four people in conversation. There is a young man and woman of the same age attended by an elderly woman standing slightly behind and to the side of them. They are facing a second man. As I move closer I can tell the man and woman are having a disagreement with the other man. Let’s suppose the young couple are the elderly woman’s grandson son and daughter-in-law, and let’s observe how they ignore her. The conversation continues until the man not related to her asks the elderly woman for her opinion. There is a pause, and then like a bicyclist maneuvering over a gravelly and treacherous path, her words come forth tentatively and with effort, as much an indicator of her age as are the crevices and age spots etched i...