Very elderly lady in front of me in the supermarket - clearly struggling. I offer to help and she is very rude, snaps at me to mind my own business. When I come out of the supermarket she is outside and apologises. We sit on a bench in the heat, shopping wilting fast. She has had a traumatic life. First husband violent, second husband a thief who took all her money. One child killed crossing the road and the second died in their twenties of a strange brain disease.
'There are other things but I can't tell you, dear,' she said.
Looking into her eyes, you have never seen such a terrible sadness.
So I offered to help if I could - with shopping, or visiting. I wanted to go home and cut her some flowers. But she told me that she didn't need or want help because she could 'be a bitch - like most old ladies' and that one day she would forgo the shopping, sit down in a chair and give up.
Off she went - quite determined, quite independent. But I just sat there and behind my sunglasses, had a cry.
I'm stupid I know but the thought of that sort of misery, bad luck and awful life makes me actually hurt inside. I know you cannot take on the burdens of the world but.....