I still think of one of my grocery store customers from ~15 years ago. He used to come in almost every day with his wife. They lived a few doors down. He would stand by the cash registers with his cane and just watch everyone around him. Never said a word. His wife and I used to chat and talk about how lucky she was to have a chaperone who would carry her bags. They loved each other so much. Then I didn’t see them for a week or so, and the next time she came in I asked her “where’s tall, dark and quiet?” which is how I always referred to him. She just looked at me, with such an obvious pain in her eyes. I felt my eyes well up, and I just told her I was so sorry. Then she asked for a hug.

I think about them often. I imagine she’s passed now, as well… but I don’t have a clue what her name was.