Perspectives

At my place of employment I lead a yearly memorial service.  The memorial service is always on the Sunday of  Memorial Day weekend.  This year we held the service outside because we had a balloon release as part of the service  One of the women who attended the service has issues beyond grieving the death of someone close to her.  This particular woman came to service of dressed in all black.  In a sea of people dressed casually in spring colors and short sleeves, this woman stood out.  After the service, the woman in black indicated she wanted me to visit her at some point over the following week.

After being off Monday due to the holiday, I went back to work on Tuesday.  During the day another woman who attended the service called concerned because another woman at the service was dressed in black.  At a service that was outside on a sunny May day this choice of clothing made this woman concerned for the mental well being of her fellow mourner.   I explained the situation as best as I could and the woman seemed satisfied.

Later on Tuesday, I made my scheduled visit to the woman in black.  The first thing the woman in black told me she was concerned because nobody at the memorial service but her appeared to be grieving because no one else dressed in black.