I was walking on the beach last week. It was a cold/overcast evening, but Abby loves to run in the sand, so we went.
As we walk we come across an older woman, who I later learned was"58 years young".
She wore a winter jacket, hat and boots. She had a small black bag around her neck and a walking stick.
I planned to keep going on my way, but Abby thought it would be a good idea to run right up to this lady, with one of those "look how cute I am" faces.
I ran up to grab Abbs and apologize to this woman, but she looked at me and said
"Animals love me!"
Then asked if it would be ok to take a picture of my dog. I said sure, and she asked me to help her take her camera out of the bag around her neck.
Turns out this lady (who finally introduced herself as Maureen) is a wonderful photographer. She went on to tell me her life story.
From childhood, (abusive)
to her young adult years, (married young, and had a son and daughter)
to her later years (discovered she was gay, divorced, and her kids disowned her)
all the way up to the life she lives today (missing her kids, and her only grand daughter, but living her life true to herself, and helping others.)
The pictures she takes, she prints out and gives to the elderly who can't afford their own artwork.
Keep in mind we are the only two people on the beach at his point.
Out of the corner of my eye I see someone walk onto the sand not far from us, with a surfboard making an attempt to wiggle into a wetsuit.
Maureen sees me glance at him, and asks me "If I think he's cute".
I kind of didn't know what to say, so she proceeded to whistle and call him over.
She asked if she could take pictures of him while he was on the water, and he was more than polite to her.
I, meanwhile am standing there, slack-jawed with my out of control puppy running circles around me.
This guy was probably one of the most beautiful individuals I have ever laid eyes on.
Stunning.
Maureen introduced us, made small talk, then she shoo-ed him away to go play in the water so she could take a picture.
She smirked at me, and said "Yeah, he is cute. Has a girlfriend though".
I rolled my eyes and said something along the lines of "Mmmhmm, don't they always..."
Right then she dropped everything she was doing, and looked me dead in the eyes with a serious tone of voice.
"Don't you rush yourself. You don't know what's in store for you. Live your life, and the perfect one for you will come along when you least expect it. Some crazy lady on the beach could introduce you to the boy of your dreams, you can't plan something like that."
She smiled and continued clicking away at that camera.
After an hour or so, it was time for me to get home, I said goodbye to Maureen, who simply said, "I'll be seeing you".
The next morning I thought maybe I had dreamed the whole thing, but I hadn't. And I'm pretty sure that her stories and her advice will stay with me for a very long time.
