Old Man Stranger

A red cross volunteer welcomed me to the snack table after my blood donation yesterday. The 75+ year old, freckled, slow moving man said to me, "It's funny, you look so much like Joy. You see I'm a caricature artist, and your bone structures look just like her. She's a lady that goes to my church. Your nose, your cheeks. Just like her."

As I nibbled on cookies with my one good arm, I asked, and he told me about how he began drawing caricatures when he was in eighth grade and how his passion developed into a career. He works at weddings and celebrity parties in LA. He can draw 20-30 an hour, side view, 15 front. If he had time, he would draw backgrounds too. I told him I had a caricature of my best friend and I drawn by an artist at the OC Fair with the Eiffel Tower in the background. I liked the look on his face each time I asked a question. I could see him revisiting his past as if the snack table suddenly transformed into his own caricature background.

He was a Christian man and a substitute teacher during parts of his life. He had even subbed at the school where I work (years ago, though).

Yesterday was a long, upsetting day, but this stranger slowed me down and let me absorb some of the goodness in the world. He was one of the only smiles I saw all day.

Well I have Lost You

Because I was reminded of this line of poetry today...



Well I Have Lost You by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly;
In my own way, and with my full consent.
Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely
Went to their deaths more proud than this one went.
Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping
I will confess; but that's permitted me;
Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping
Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.
If I had loved you less or played you slyly
I might have held you for a summer more,
But at the cost of words I value highly,
And no such summer as the one before.
Should I outlive this anguish—and men do—
I shall have only good to say of you.