It was 10.15 in the evening. Gordon and I had finished our dinner and were heading for a late night drink. The quickest route was through the buffet, a place we try never to set foot in, but it often provides a shortcut from one place to another.
As we strolled through, we both noticed a woman of an age – which she had gone to some considerable expense to conceal – sitting at a table with her husband. She had put her finery on for the evening and looked adorable. She gave us a smile as we passed by, but it was tinged with sadness. After we passed, we both discussed how lovely she looked.
On the spur of the moment, I turned round and went back to her. I told her that we were both struck by how gorgeous she was and asked if I could take her photo.
Her face absolutely lit up, her smile broadened, her eyes sparkled, and she told me that I had made her day.
When I got my phone out to take the photo, she fussed with her hair, her dress and her scarf, crossed her hands on top of her knees, tilted her head, and gave me that smile.
Then with a giggle and a wicked look in her eye, she said ” “I’m ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille, “
And she was…………..
She said that she actually had a small bag that looks like a flower to go with her head band, and a pair of shoes with flowers on them. But when nobody paid any notice or passed any comment, she felt invisible, so she went back to her room, put on a pair of more comfortable shoes, and dumped her bag.
” If only I had known you would come by”, she said, “I would have kept them on”
She spoke with a lovely lilting southern accent that just added to her aura.
“Well, you still stopped me in my tracks” I replied.
She beamed with delight, and then removed a tiny pink handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed the corner of her eyes
I turned to her husband, a man who couldn’t disguise that he was in his eighties, but still looked terrific in a dinner jacket, with a walker as his one accessory, and I said that I thought he was a very lucky man.
He replied “I am well aware of that. She is my life. My heart is so full of love for her that I miss her even when she is in another room.”
She leant across the table and took both his hands in hers and smiled lovingly at him. But that sadness was back in her eyes.
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