Before my four year stint in the Philippines,
when I was in my mid sixties,
I used to see a beautiful elderly woman, who appeared
to be in her early seventies,
taking walks alone not far from where I worked.
She was always dressed in fashionable dresses and
had beautiful gray hair she wore in a long wavy hair style.
She was easily one of the most beautiful elderly
women I had ever seen.
I never saw her with anyone. I believed
she had a husband who preceded her in death,
and that her long walks were not only for exercise
but also to ease her grief over losing him.
I never saw her on her walks when I retired from
the Philippines and lived near where she walked.
I thought she had perished and felt a little sad that
she had died.
But a few months ago, eleven years later, I saw her
taking a walk.
Her hair had grayed more and become as if frayed
by age; she had put on weight, and looked close to
dying.
I was sad to see her in such a state, but then I felt that
if what I had believed about her had been correct, her
having a husband that died before her,
she would be young again and reunited with him in
the afterlife and be happier than she ever could
have been in this impermanent life.
Bob Boyd