"Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody's heart."
Anthony J. D'Angelo
Love at a Standstill
I had had a shower, smelled of soap, had on my casual clothes, and had combed my rapidly graying hair into the best “do” I could manage. My father had required a lot of my time recently due to being in the hospital with health issues and a case of Alzheimer’s that seemed to be taking away the father I knew. So, my hair was not a priority on this warm June day. I had to suffer the length and just “fluff” my coif a bit and make do as women often have to improvise.
And so I sat, all clean and poofy, with my very recent Cover Girl scent wafting from my visage. I was stopped at the traffic light, on the way to the geriatric hospital, all the while feeling like I needed a bed there myself!
Then I caught his glance in my peripheral vision and returned his smile with that wide smile I’ve had through all the years of my life. It's a Southern thing, and my mother impressed upon me the importance of a smile long ago. He kept smiling and looking directly my way. Oh, goodness—did he make a mistake? Had he seen the long hair and briefly and erroneously thought I was younger than my 56 years?!!
Then the strangest thing happened, he acted like he hadn’t goofed, like he had meant to smile at me. Definitely not a leer, but a smile that a kind man gives a woman. And when he saw me full face the smile continued.
He looked like a man’s man and was wearing a baseball cap, which I always love. He was transporting his large Golden Retriever in the back seat. I sat there and thought that 30 or so years ago I could have given birth to him--how depressing!
Now, don’t worry, I did not delude myself in any way. I figured I reminded him of his Mom or he associated me with a favorite aunt and smiled at me for that very reason.
But, hey, I’ll take “kindness by association.” Like Blanche DuBois, I have always depended upon “the kindness of strangers.” That particular day I needed a smile, even if it was a “pity smile.”
So the light changed and we went on with our daily routines. But I’ll always remember that freeze-frame smile and love how a kind young man deduced that would be just the thing to brighten my day.