Words of comfort for a stranger.

I was in a local store today, the kind that has everything from food to shoes. A worker was sitting in the gardening area alone and she was obviously either ill or upset.

I asked if she was ok and she said she was fine, but it kept bugging me because I could pick up on her energy that all was not well. I walked around a bit more, then went back and said, you are obviously not ok and I just wanted to offer my support. She said her mom died last week. I could relate as mine died in ’07 and I’m taking my turn this week tending to my dad who has stage 4 cancer and is on hospice comfort care at home. He is doing fair right now but, not for long thought as I know that is coming soon in my future too. I will be 48 and an orphan of sorts. I was super close to my mom and it is still not easy.

I went to the card section and bought this lady I don’t know a card. I was just drawn to do it and wrote some words I hoped would comfort her. Everyone says it gets easier with time, well not for me and I wanted her to know that it doesn’t get easier but it gets a little less challenging and to feel her feelings and cry when she needed to. That there would be times she would see a woman who looks just like her mom or she’d hear a song in the grocery store and just have to abandon her cart and go cry in the car. Things no one ever told me would happen they just did and I was surprised when they did.

I paid for the card and wrote my words and almost missed her leaving the area I last saw her. I stopped her and gave her the card and told her to read it later. It surprised her and the lady she worked with standing next to her.

As I walked away with tears in my own eyes missing my mom terribly, I heard the other lady ask her if she knew me, she said no but I had approached her in gardening and knew she was up set and that she told me her momma died. I heard the one lady say wow, no one does that kind of thing… and that made me smile. – Kim 🙂