“Are you sure you want to go?” I ask Violet.

“Oh, yes, the evening sounds delightful,” she answers in her proper English, with a slight quiver to her voice. Violet’s small, hazel eyes beam, the thin white hair on her head moving as if in a breeze as she nods her head.

“Dinner might be enough. You’ve just only been feeling better,” I suggest.  Violet and I became friends while she attended my writing classes. We’re a strange combination: she is an 80-year-old widow from New Zealand and works in a New Age city bookstore; I’m married, decades younger, and work in the suburbs.

“I read the book, Violet. It’s a sweet romance, but it’s sad too. I’m not sure the movie…” Continue reading →