Everyone has a story. But not everyone has an audience. It's surprising the stories people will tell if anyone is willing to listen.
I chaperoned a school field trip last week. The parents had to carpool because there wasn't room on the bus. Five moms and one dad. One mom in particular talked freely during the ride. She shared that her son has emotional issues and just got a 504 plan to provide him with accommodations for his explosive temper, and her other son has ADHD and has had trouble in school, and they changed schools three times in the past three years, and her ex-husband is no help, and her mother has cancer and she is her caregiver, and -- you get the idea. I know more about this woman now than I do about some of my relatives. And without a doubt, she has had some tough times, but she is still in good humor and almost seems to enjoy telling her tales of woe.
We chatted some more. One woman, whom I hadn't met before, was very quiet. I asked which child is hers. Her daughter transferred to the school in the middle of the year. The woman, Laura, spoke softly and haltingly, with a trace of a Spanish accent. She had just gotten divorced. She moved here with her two daughters. A month ago, she was laid off. She doesn't know how she is going to pay the bills. She has been spending her days looking for work, but there's nothing. She was going to go to school to finish her nursing degree, but she can't do that without a job. She wasn't going to come today because she had to make phone calls, but her daughter cried when she said she couldn't come, so here she was.
Laura was obviously depressed. She hardly looked at us, and she never smiled.
Another woman vounteered that she had been laid off before Christmas. Her husband works, so they're okay for a while, but they're living month to month. We all shook our heads and agreed that we're one pink slip away from disaster. It's the same story everywhere.
On the way home from the field trip, we were quiet. A couple of moms were busy texting on their PDAs. I wanted to say something to Laura, but I didn't know what.
I heard later that on the way back to school, the bus had to stop at a fast-food restaurant because Laura's daughter got sick. She ran to the bathroom and threw up. The kids were late getting back to school. Everyone was talking about it.
