smile

We moved to a rural side of Irving back in 1998 and we had a special neighbor that greeted us from day one. She has watched my sisters grow up and now watches them as they come home and leave to their own homes.

I visited her today but not my regular visit. You see she fell in love and married and it had been 56 years this year when she unexpectedly had to say goodbye to her husband. He made it just one more valentine before he left. I accompanied my mother to visit with her. She married a navy man. We didn't make it to his service but she told me of the flag folded that was given to her. She is one special lady. It was always just him and her. They never had a family. I didn't want to ever ask why they were not able to have a family. I felt that there might be more to the story if I had asked and didn't want her to feel any less for not having a child. My concern is that she has no one but her mother who lives an hour away. On his side only a sister and a niece. She doesn't have any plans of moving but she disliked the fact that, that was the number one concern on other peoples mind. I told her that for us it would be just fine if she stayed, that if anything we were just around the corner.

She told us a story of her husband and that included saying " how I would give anything to see that big smile of his again".

His death was sudden. She wasn't prepared for a goodbye.

Picture a 77 year silver hair with light pink lipstick on sharing with me a photograph of her and her husband back when her hair was red.

Her birthday is in May and she jokingly said "if I make it another birthday".

She is a strong woman. I just don't want her to feel alone.

I came home to share the story and tried to capture Heathers smile.

You capture a smile.