The past

Finnegan’s Wake is on my path to the senior center.

I must have walked by dozens of times, but it’s only today that I ran into the woman who owns the place. We exchanged hellos and haven’t seen you in a long time.

I explained about Burt’s dementia and told her he’d died. It’s recent, she sympathized, and invited me to come by.

She said Burt was funny, he was a character. I agreed.

I had avoided going to Finnegan’s during his illness. It had been one of our regular lunch haunts. I did not return since he passed.

It’s likely I will now.

A second brush with the past also occurred today. Sometimes, it feels as if we conjure people, and in this case, my friend and I had mentioned N just last night. And now, here she was waiting at the elevator. We hugged as I had with my buddy from Finnegan’s.

The past made my eyes tear, and it felt like I had experienced such nurturing encounters.

An abundance of the past.