Cheryl

I met Cheryl at the check out of our local supermarket. She was busy talking to the cashier and perhaps sensing me staring at her in silent delight, brought me into their conversation. Most likely though it was because, “ Cheryl chats to everyone!”

Catching up with her in the car park I told her how much I loved her outfit.  Laughing in surprise she pointed to her feet and told me she had brought her sneakers at a thrift store for $5, it wasn’t until she got home she realized the laces were different colors. Recalling another shopping memory, she went on to tell me how she once walked out of that same store with a bracelet on her wrist that she had forgotten to pay for! Her husband, who was waiting in the car, said it didn’t matter it was probably only a quarter. But, “a quarter is a quarter,” so she went back in to pay. It was $2.

I was lucky to have met Cheryl at all as she no longer goes out much. Her husband is now in hospice at home and neighbors usually did their shopping for them. But today she wanted to do it, to get out! She had to be quick though, having told the hospice worker and her husband she would not be long. “I must hurry, I must hurry!” she said before launching into another conversation.

Cheryl has lived in the same neighborhood for the past twenty year and knows all her neighbors, wondering if something is wrong with her because they are all so nice! As we pushed our trolleys slowly across the car park she pointed over to the right and said she usually parks over there, well her husband did but this time she decided to park to the left, near where I was parked. Smiling she then told me she loves to tell jokes and wondered if I had time to hear one.

“What does a duck say when he buys some jewelry?  Put it on my bill !”

One night when she was walking her dog, a rescue she got from a shelter 4 years ago, she met a couple who were, as she said “a little under the weather, you could tell they had been drinking!”   After chatting a while one of them told her he was a comic writer for a local newspaper. Not one to miss an opporutinigy Cheryl tried some of her jokes on them. The wife, she said, turned to her husband and said, “she’s funnier than you!” But Cheryl wanted to make sure that she understood the big difference between her and him. She only tells jokes that have been told to her, while this ladies husband made up his own material.

Cheryl use to be a teacher at the local elementary school, grades 1-3. She loved it. Her husband use to be an engineer, a carpenter and an upholsterer. “That was a lot of work,” she said. But now they are older and he is dying of cancer. She also had cancer and so did their dog but she got over it and doesn’t think she has it any more, so too did the dog. Her husband though will not. In the middle of the car park she started crying. I went in to give her a hug and she pulled away saying, “No! You can’t, I’m not vaccinated!”

She didn’t mind not being vaccinated she just thought I might mind and while she doesn’t have a problem with people who are vaccinated she decided it wasn’t for her or husband. They have been married for 40 years. She loves him very much. Rootling around in her pocket she pulls out a tissue and plastic doggy poop bags.

My glasses fell out of their case when I pulled my camera out. They were broken already, one arm having fallen off that morning.  Cheryl was upset for me. “Oh no! They look nice!”

“No don’t worry, they were cheap.”

“Well you can always tape the arm back on.”

I wasn’t going to do that but now that I know that is what Cheryl would have done I’m going to do it too.