Charm School

Powell River has a very small shopping mall, but I shopped the hell out of it. I was booked to do a very rare evening presentation starting at 6 and didn't want to go back to the hotel between the afternoon and the evening workshops. So, we went to the mall and shopped. I bought stuff. This brings me a kind of happiness.

We stopped for a cup of tea and watched the world go by. An elderly woman in a scooter pulled in along side of us and took the seat right at the end of the table for 8. Shortly thereafter an elderly man walked by and she called out his name. He turned and looked at her. She spoke to him. You could see by the bewildered look on his face he had no idea who she was. She saw this too and she said, "I've just seen Irenie going by, she went to Shop and Save.'

He recognized his wife's name, knew were Shop and Save was - he was feeling on firmer ground but he still didn't know her. A second passes, his face transforms and he walks up to her and makes some jokes about his wife shopping and spending all the family wealth. It was tired patter, it was incredibly old fashioned, and in it's way it was entirely sweet.

He said his goodbyes and she turned to us and said, "The devil may have stolen his memory but God let him keep his charm.'

I said, "And charm will get you a long way."

"It will," she said, "it will."