So the other day I walk into Shop & Save and see an elderly frail gentleman pulling a grocery cart and simultaneously pushing a wheelchair with an elderly women wearing an oxygen tube under her nose–his wife, I assume. They weren’t making good time with him using only one hand for the wheelchair. I tried to help him by offering to take the cart but he declined.

I watched them drift out the door and a lady standing there commented how sad it was. “You never know when that will be you.” I said I wish he had let me help. He shouldn’t have to deal with things completely alone. “I’ll keep an eye on them while I’m out there and make sure they’re OK,” she assured me.

Later, at the checkout with ice cream and wine, the cashier joked that I was going to mix them and the guy after me in line chimed in. No, I said. One’s for the children and the other is our reward after the children go to bed. We bantered about the domestic R&R of getting couch time with a DVD and a bottle of wine after the children are down. Then, in a tone that was meant to be humorous, the man said, “You almost make me wish I wasn’t divorced.” I didn’t see that coming and had no idea how to respond. Didn’t seem funny.