My brother needed a last minute Fathers Day something for my dad so we stopped in at Target to grab some Swedish fish and a funny card he found. The store was fairly full and we found the shortest line and started unloading our items.

The woman who checked us out had a red shirt on and her graying shoulder length hair was pulled back into a pony tail on the back of her neck.

She was certainly taking her time checking us out, looking at each item and then slowing swiping it by the scanner.

I particularly loved one of the cards we were buying that was talking about super dads. It had a picture of a little stick man flying through the air with a little red cape on. She looked at the card and sighed.

"My hero wasn't a hero. He turned out to be a jerk."

My mom and I exchanged nervous glances as she stared at the card.

I noted the sadness in her voice. But there was a stronger tone that rang through even clearer. Bitterness.

"After 27 years together, he dumped me. Took off. Bought a motorcycle. Bought a new car. Had his hair from here (she pointed to the back of her neck) transplanted to here (she tapped her forehead)."

I looked at her. Not knowing how to respond. I was shocked that she had brought this personal, tender, topic up.

"He took off rich. . .and he left me poor."

The whole time I was hearing her speak about her former husband, I was speechless in how to respond to this.

"Well," she sighed, "I hope your hero doesn't end up like that too."

The only response I could think to say was: "I'm so sorry." And that's what my mom said: "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

There was nothing else left to do. Mom paid for our items and I picked up the bags. I felt weird just walking away from her. Our interaction with her certainly put a damper on our outing and for me, the happy, hero card.
I think the reason it was so. . .surprising is because normally, people don't bring up painful things. Who wants to? Especially to a bunch of strangers. But she did. She told us.
The reason I felt so sad about the whole conversation is because it was evident that she didn't have hope; she just had years and years of bitterness saturated in her voice.

She's probably very lonely.
She's probably very sad.
She's probably very angry.

Grief can be so unpredictible. I'm sure sometimes she wants the whole world to know what this man did to her. And other times, she probably doesn't want anyone to know. Who knows? All I know is that the card we bought stirred up some painful memories and she told us what she was thinking.

I'm not sure how to wrap this up. I just wanted to share our interaction.

On a lighter note, Lily (our cat) found a special something that I will share about and show picture of soon!! I'll give you a little hint. . .actually, I won't! Stay tuned!