Coffee Talk

It was raining hard yesterday morning but the weather was a mild 6C. I stopped in at McDonald's for an apple oatmeal muffin and coffee. It was surprisingly empty either because of the rain or because the free coffee special ended. I heard the manager ask one of the cashiers to get a muffin ready with a candle for a regular called Roger, who was turning 80.

I ended up sitting next to a well dressed lady wearing a dark grey sweater over a light pink top. It was so pretty how her earrings and ring were also pink. It turns out she's originally from Mexico, so we got talking about the crime and poverty in poor countries. She said she goes to the big market in Mexico City with her good looking cousin to shop. It's a place her big burly male cousins avoid because they are afraid. However, they sell fabulous shoes and she knows the shoemaker. So she will order the ones she likes in size 4 and a half, a difficult size to begin with.

For some reason, I mentioned my daughter away at school, and a son at home. She said she has 2 daughters. Her favourite, (and she said she shouldn't really say that) lives in London, England. It turns out this daughter got her teacher's degree at a university here, but couldn't get a job, even with all her many certificates. So she and a friend heard there were jobs in London, and off they went. They were readily employed and before you know it, she was married to an Englishman. Now they are expecting a baby. So the lady will visit, but she laments the 'loss' of her favourite daughter. She said she had actually seen a therapist to treat her problem. It seems her mother had died early at 58 and this daughter looks so much like her. So the therapist told her that was the reason she is so attached to this daughter. And this discovery has helped a lot in dealing with her feelings, it has helped her let go more.

I said, 'do you have a husband?' She says, 'yes, he is at home'. Then I said, 'what about your other daughter?' She says, 'she's at home too'. I laughed and said 'oh, that's not so bad, you have lots of company'. After about 20 minutes, I decided I better get on with my day. I bid her goodbye, we exchanged names (hers is Rosemary), and I told her I enjoyed listening and learning from her experiences. She said 'it's always good, because you realize you have no problems when you hear other people's problems'. I laughed and said 'same to you' and bid her goodbye. I'm terrible with faces, I'll try to remember hers in case I see her again.

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