Comfort of Strangers

Some women are stoic in the sharp
face of emotional pressure, some
even sanguine, accepting that what
will be, will be. This old woman was
none of that. She entered the hospital
waiting room bedraggled and ashen
finding a corner space unoccupied
turned her face to the wall and wept.
In that crowded waiting room sat
others grimly tense, awaiting word
of loved ones post-surgery. The
prevailing silence oozed an air of
indifferent puzzlement until one
middle-aged woman, her broad face
creased with concern shifted in her
seat to lean toward the figure
wracked with heaving tears. Enveloping
the weeping figure in a warmth of
soothing empathy, two women
rose to wrap themselves about her
murmuring their feelings, urging
despair to permeate the atmosphere
until the pain became manageable
under a torrent of understanding hugs.