A Simple Smile

I saw a woman at the Raceway last week. We were both filling our cars with gas. I wouldn’t have noticed her at all, and she was making every effort not to be noticed, but like a person who draws attention to themselves with a bright, shining smile, she caught my eye because of her overwhelming sadness. Her head was sunk low, hanging heavily off her stooped shoulders. She leaned against her car, her body language speaking volumes about how she felt.

I had never seen her before and would likely never see her again. Still, she broke my heart. No one should walk around looking so sad. I couldn’t help but wonder what was haunting her so deeply. She was younger than me, probably by a good fifteen years, but she carried a lifetime of unresolved problems in her shy, hurting eyes. I wondered who her father was and how he would feel to see his daughter look so beaten down. I thought of my own daughters and hoped that they never, ever looked that way.

My fuel tank filled and the pump turned off, and I was soon sitting in my car, ready to leave. I glanced in my side mirror and took one long last look at the young woman. It crossed my mind to get out and offer her a friendly word. I wondered if one smile from a stranger might offer a slight lift to her gloom. Probably not, I thought, certainly not from me. Who did I think I was? I debated long enough that she finished and got in her car, driving away to whatever in her life was making her look so somber.

The moment had passed. I could not go back. If there had been a slight chance that I could have offered a moment of kindness to someone who seemed to desperately need it, I had let it slip through my fingers. I will never know if it would have made a difference.

I pulled away from the pumps and turned back toward home. I felt pretty fortunate…and more than a little ashamed that I so easily take my own happiness for granted.