Building Experience

Writing 101, Day Six: A Character-Building Experience

The first time I met her, she was helping her son unpacking household items. She had come to stay with her son permanently after her husband’s death. Our flats were on the same floor opposite each other.

She was in her fifties, a few years younger than me. She looked very composed. She was blessed with dark black smiling eyes, which were exuding love and affection. She was a little on the plump side, looking quite fit and healthy. She was in her faded housecoat. She invited me inside. We chatted for some time.

Something in her attracted me and we became friends. This was the beginning of our long friendship. It became our routine to meet daily at 5 pm for one hour. She used to tell me how she coped with his husband’s illness, how her husband who never fell ill even for a day in his life, never took a pill, was diagnosed having liver cancer. The news broke her but seeing her husband more scared she summoned her courage and prepared him for painful treatment. It’s a long story but it gave me the idea of her strong character.