Have you seen her?

Once in a while I see her. A month or so ago I saw her at the grocery store. Yesterday it was at Walmart.

You can’t miss her if you are an observant person. She is always covered from head to toe in clothes. No matter what the weather is. She wears large dark glasses and her hair is in a pony tail. Usually she wears a heavy cover of makeup.

If you haven’t noticed her, you can’t know the story. I don’t know her at all. But I know what she lives. I can tell.

She wears long sleeve shirts or sweaters. That’s to cover the bruises on her arms. The dark glasses cover the usual black eye or eyes that may not be black at that moment. Perhaps it is purple or a weird shade of green or maybe even yellow. Her hair is almost always in a pony tail. Maybe that hides the bald spot where a patch of hair is no longer there, because even the roots were pulled out.

Did you notice she was limping as she pushed the cart down the aisle? That kick to the knee was pretty painful. Do you wonder why she is only using one hand to pick up and deposit groceries in the cart? Could it be there is a broken finger or two.

I notice. I am very observant about such things. I know she is in pain. Not the kind of pain you may think. Physically, pain is nothing to her. She is use to it. The pain that is hurting her is emotional and mental. Pain when she sees her children’s faces when they look at her. Or when they show the fear in their eyes because she can barely get out of bed in the morning.

There is no pain for herself. It is always for her babes. She wonders how long this will go on. How will her children be when they grow up? If she never takes them away.

Her mind is always working, trying to decide what is best, and what is worst. Can it get any worse?

Have you seen her?

“Appalling”

How is it to be understood?  How can one explain it?  We all know that many important situations and issues occupy the minds of those who operate the print media of Rockingham County.  But, really!  Incredulous!  Embarrassing!  Shameful!   And to quote every actor who has portrayed, on stage, King Mongut, in that well-loved and long-running stage adaptation of Margaret Landon’s, Anna and the King of Siam c.1944:  “…most unscientific.” This reader believes that the absence of print notices informing news readers in this county about the lunar eclipse was… most unscientific, indeed, and a lost opportunity to report an event that would cause some groovy anticipation in the minds of the regular, loyal readers.

At those times when King Mongut used that exclamation, “most unscientific,”  he talked of many different and interesting subjects.  He also said that he thought Moses must have been a fool (just a little added trivia) and most unscientific.

I wonder if King Mongut would have labeled a total eclipse of the moon, scientific?  I also wonder where were the notices in the Reidsville Review and The Reidsville Free Press that could have told us to go outside last night and look up.  The fact that they didn’t is, to me, incredulous, appalling, embarrassing, etc.  A LUNAR ECLIPSE!  One of those events that occurs independently of man’s  touch or tweaking.   His hands are completely off.  He can capture the lovely and alluring event with his technology.  A likeness?  Semblance?  In real time?  But he cannot alter the celestial phenomenon one nano-bit, not one. Knowing that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Okay, then.  There are many accounts of the lunar eclipse along with some mind-blowing photographs for our viewing pleasure on other news websites.  Maybe next time, Reidsville.

Vicki Herndon

I Will Always Love You

Whether it be star-crossed lovers, family or friends, I wonder how often that statement has been said. And eventually dismissed as if it meant nothing.

I know over my lifetime I have left so many friends behind because of moves, that there is barely enough room in my head to remember them all. At one point, for many different reasons, I moved 10 times in 10 years. Just about the time I would be getting use to the neighborhood and neighbors the packing would begin.

The first few times I tried to stay in touch via mail or telephone, but eventually, slowly but surely they were lost from me. This past year I contacted or was contacted by a few of those friends that hadn’t heard from me in years, and was surprised to notice that talking to some was like I hadn’t ever been gone and talking to others was like talking to a stranger.

Of course I must say there were times I was glad to get out of Dodge, so to speak and never missed for a moment, those I left behind. It had become a pattern and one in which I was severely tethered to.

After my days of drinking came to an end, those I drank with were no longer interested in having me by their side. I was no longer the funny, silly, sometimes temper laden person they were use to. And to me, they were no longer any of those things either. They were mostly boring or so flamboyant it was almost scary to be with them as a sober person.

There are a few friends I have stayed in touch with and who I love dearly and I have made other friends that I treasure very much. Some are friends from the Internet. Although unlike most Internet friends, I have traveled to see them in person. Which has helped take away my zero trust factor as well.

I think about families who separate one from another. Parents who disown their children. Children who disown their parents. Siblings who no longer even talk to each other. As per usual, I have wondered about it all.

Marriages are broken and anger replaces the love that once was.

My conclusion? God is the only one you can really count on to always love you.