The Duty Redux
Apr. 26th, 2007 02:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiat_knoxToday, I had to sort out the worries and woes of not one, not two, but three of my clients.
All three of them were in town. All of them were women. I do have male clients, but they're rare.
I'd arranged to meet the first one in a cafe. A lunch date, as it were. We talked, and then we went walkabout. I gave her something for her back, and spoke of her life and her woes and many such things.
I bumped into the second client at the end of the road. She's getting on, and she needs support walking; which was why I gravitated towards her when I realised she was laening against a wall. Her walking stick had broken.
I hadn't realised I needed to see my third client until passing by the place where she works. It was only on dropping by that I discovered something.
The third client's sister had died three weeks ago. Pneumonia.
After I'd finished, I turned to my first friend, the one with whom I'd had a lunch date, and said "Now do you see?"
It turned out that she knew the woman whose sister had died. And both of them knew the first client's late husband.
This isn't gossip. There are no names here, no pack drill. As far as you could be concerned, I could be making the whole thing up.
But by the time I'd finished, I'd helped two women find a new friend, to lend mutual strength and support, and offered help to another.
Even if a person is at the end of their tether, with nowhere else to go, there's always someone out there who might need their help.
Sometimes, the only thing I can try to do is to let fate bring those people together, let them help one another.
Sometimes, I believe it is the only thing any of us can do.
All three of them were in town. All of them were women. I do have male clients, but they're rare.
I'd arranged to meet the first one in a cafe. A lunch date, as it were. We talked, and then we went walkabout. I gave her something for her back, and spoke of her life and her woes and many such things.
I bumped into the second client at the end of the road. She's getting on, and she needs support walking; which was why I gravitated towards her when I realised she was laening against a wall. Her walking stick had broken.
I hadn't realised I needed to see my third client until passing by the place where she works. It was only on dropping by that I discovered something.
The third client's sister had died three weeks ago. Pneumonia.
After I'd finished, I turned to my first friend, the one with whom I'd had a lunch date, and said "Now do you see?"
It turned out that she knew the woman whose sister had died. And both of them knew the first client's late husband.
This isn't gossip. There are no names here, no pack drill. As far as you could be concerned, I could be making the whole thing up.
But by the time I'd finished, I'd helped two women find a new friend, to lend mutual strength and support, and offered help to another.
Even if a person is at the end of their tether, with nowhere else to go, there's always someone out there who might need their help.
Sometimes, the only thing I can try to do is to let fate bring those people together, let them help one another.
Sometimes, I believe it is the only thing any of us can do.
