Train ride home

On the 16th of May, I caught the train home with my friend Tina Luu. We decided to skip Anatomy because we had more urgent matters to attend to. Plus, it's a subject that's more beneficial when you listen to the lecture at your own leisure since you have the opportunity to go over everything! Lecturers try to cram in everything as fast as possible, and as a consequence, you're bombarded with so much information that you tend to miss out on important details since you're so busy trying to keep up.

On this very day, we met a peculiar woman. After she got onto the train, she was banging on the windows, trying to get the attention of her friend, who happened to be on the next platform. I do not know if she managed to succeed in her plan, but she surely had the attention of every passenger on the carriage. She was apologetic when she realised what she had done. From this, she stuck up a conversation with us.

For the reminder of the trip, she was constantly admiring how "gorgeous" we were. After the initial praise and compliments, she started to share some details about her life. Like how she nearly died giving birth to her youngest daughter. How her son has a girlfriend that resembles me. How her father used to call her baby cheeks, which was what she was calling us. As my friend and I stood up to leave, she told us to stay together, to look after one another and know what's truly important.

From what I can remember, she carried alcohol (probably wine) in her bag. Her hair was a mess and her skin was dry and pale. I remember thinking that she looked as if life had dealt her a bad set of cards, but she's done everything to her abilities to deal with it. She's had a harsh life but her genuine love for her children, which seems to be the only thing that's keeping her alive, was palpable.

I hope that this lady has found peace in her life and is truly happy. I would also like to thank her for sharing a bit of herself to random strangers. There are many reasons why she struck a conversation with my friend and I. She may have been lonely and needed to talk to someone or she was just very open about herself. Either way, I admire her for sharing such intimite details about her life. It takes such courage to share something about yourself without worrying about other people's opinion.