Lonely lady

“My husband is solely responsible for bringing in $400 million in revenue for XYZ Software every year” said a smug Mrs. M. I swallowed and fixed my polite smile on my face while trying very hard not to roll my eyes. This lady is my neighbor and the mother of my 4-year old daughter’s best friend. Otherwise I wouldn’t be listening to her brag for the umpteenth time on what a success her husband is. Actually I would rather listen to that than to her description of her latest acquisition of jewelry. She goes on endlessly about how great life was in Switzerland where she lived for seven years and which constitutes the highlight of her existence.

Initially I used to run and hide when I spotted her waddling gait far away. Unfortunately the main path for walking has no trees to afford even a shred of cover and crouching behind a bush simply was not elegant and therefore I frequently had to endure the lady’s bragging sessions. I tried sarcasm but it flew over her head. I tried barely veiled threats and they would escape her completely. What I couldn’t do was be downright rude and tell her to can it!

Later, however I began to think about the reasons that could be behind her behavior. She had a husband who was never home – she single-handedly raised two children who are about a decade apart in age. She ran the house and took care of her husband’s parents when they were ill. She, in short was lonely and also left with handling the responsibility of the children all by herself with no help from an absentee husband. So she had to brag to cover her insecurity like she tried to hide her rotund figure behind black clothes always or like she combed over the glaring bald patch on the center of her head. She had to constantly reassure herself that her husband found her good enough and therefore she told us all about how he ate only home-cooked food and thought she was the best cook in the whole world, about how she hardly ate but probably had a metabolism problem else how could she possibly put on weight but anyway she would become slim soon when she joined a gym. Her stories were poorly constructed camouflage devices to hide from the world the sordid state of her soul. Her lack of confidence, her fear that her teenage son’s rebellion would never end, the loss of the beauty that she once had – all of these together turned her into what she is now. I don’t think I can ever befriend the woman, she is still selfish and can be really mean on occasion; but I find her an object worthy of sympathy. Her life could not be very easy and her loneliness was too palpable to ignore. Maybe next time I won’t hide behind someone’s car when I see her walking my way. But probably the day after that I will ...:-)