San Diego to Houston: Airplane Conversations

Marilyn, 73, turns to peer through the small airplane window, looking for a distraction the way people tend to do in those awkward moments directly following self-disclosure.

Suddenly, she points at a cloud and says, “Look! That one is shaped like a long-haired kitten playing on its back!”

Marilyn is eccentric.

- She’s also a 2nd time widow.
- Her first husband, father of her daughters, died of cancer.
- Her second husband died a long, drawn-out death. Marilyn served her husband for seven years as his primary caregiver, tending to him as he slowly wasted away.
- Marilyn lost nearly everything she owned in hurricane Katrina, when her home was engulfed in fourteen feet of floodwater.
- She’s isolated and lonely. Marilyn is the only person within all her family and close friends living in Mississippi. Her children and grandchildren live far away, and her dog has died, pummeled to death with onions by over-zealous parade goers. (Seriously)

Reading her life in bullet points, it seems her story is a glum one, but hearing the tale from the storyteller’s mouth lends a different twist.

A silver lining.

- Marilyn remembers loving both of her husbands very much, and she still holds them dear in her heart.
- She remembers what a good father her daughters had.
- She smiles as she speaks of caring for her second husband as he suffered from illness. “I loved taking care of him. I babied him, and he loved it,” she says.
- Marilyn is grateful to be a survivor of Katrina, when so many lives were lost. She has rebuilt her home and maintains an appreciation for life without the complications that come with a love and greed for stuff.
- Marilyn enjoys visiting family and friends, and is proud her children chased their dreams as adults and ventured far from the nest. Although saddened by the loss of her dog, she beams in her ability to travel burden free.

Marilyn looks at the world through a different lens than most be people.
I got to take a peak through that lens today.

And I liked what I saw.