Old

Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life. Proverbs 16:31

I sat in an upright chair covered with flower print plastic, eating a soft oatmeal cookie, listening to, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" on the grand piano.

The twenty other women in the room with me looked on thoughtfully. Some hummed the tune, others sang in a muted voice with resonating memories of their time gone by, the rest rolled in to watch cautiously from the outskirts.

When the player struck the first keys of Oklahoma's, Oh What a Beautiful Morning, I looked at their wrinkled faces and dulling eyes...and tears filled mine.

It was impossible to imagine just what they had endured over the course of their lives. And as the song says, did everything go their way?

I know while they were busily lost in... falling in love, marrying, World War II, keeping a home, waiting or better praying, their husband would come home and meet his newborn baby, attending funerals of loved ones year after year, they never conceptualized the idea of spending the remainder of their days in this room with pale yellow wallpaper, a checkerboard in the corner, and a young black woman serving them lukewarm water.

I must slow down as the clock will not.

And I must love my husband with all I got, as I will outlive him.

I can only pray someone comes and plays the piano for me.

Do you think you know better than those before?