unmerited favor, blessing
"People don't even look at me - it's like I'm invisible. I think I'm visible. What made you so compassionate?"
Gracia stood on the side of Clarendon Boulevard, looking defeated. She held a small sign that simply said, "THIS GRANDMOTHER NEEDS HELP." Families, couples, friends, and solitary souls eager to enjoy the spring weather poured out from the Courthouse Metro station, and most didn't didn't even look at her. Something about her - the sign? the pitiful posture? her grandmotherliness? - made me stop to strike up a conversation rather than simply tossing some change and continuing about my day. I bought her a gift card from California Tortilla Kitchen and stayed for more conversation. Which is how one hour later, I'm in the tiny, disheveled Macy's at Ballston Common Mall, trying to ascertain whether her self-conscious 13-year old granddaughter would like to wear skinny jeans with a white flower print. In between, Gracia babbled on about her daughter (a victim of domestic abuse, hospitalized over the weekend), her beautiful "babies" (her four grandchildren), and herself (a self-professed Christian and also a victim of domestic abuse). And I tried very hard not to cry.
Gracia stood on the side of Clarendon Boulevard, looking defeated. She held a small sign that simply said, "THIS GRANDMOTHER NEEDS HELP." Families, couples, friends, and solitary souls eager to enjoy the spring weather poured out from the Courthouse Metro station, and most didn't didn't even look at her. Something about her - the sign? the pitiful posture? her grandmotherliness? - made me stop to strike up a conversation rather than simply tossing some change and continuing about my day. I bought her a gift card from California Tortilla Kitchen and stayed for more conversation. Which is how one hour later, I'm in the tiny, disheveled Macy's at Ballston Common Mall, trying to ascertain whether her self-conscious 13-year old granddaughter would like to wear skinny jeans with a white flower print. In between, Gracia babbled on about her daughter (a victim of domestic abuse, hospitalized over the weekend), her beautiful "babies" (her four grandchildren), and herself (a self-professed Christian and also a victim of domestic abuse). And I tried very hard not to cry.