"All The Mens Are Stupid"

Helen’s shop is right behind the school. It’s down one of those alleys that boasts a constituency of prostitutes and johns ducking in and out at inopportune times. I always tread carefully when turning the corners. I take things to Helen to be hemmed, sewn, and cleaned. Her prices are cheap so I didn’t bother complaining when my winter coat comes back smelling like cigarettes. I don’t complain about Helen’s service, be it slow, inefficient or badly scented because Helen herself is a prize. She is Greek. Her hair is a curtain of black dye. Her glasses frame her drooping black eyes and she calls me "Baby."

I stopped in Friday to check on our Commencement regalia. We've sent her upwards of sixty gowns and hoods to be pressed by next week so I thought just stopping in to see how it was going wouldn't be a bad idea. Especially since it took her half an hour once to find two pairs of pants I came to pick up. She was at the counter. She smiled weakly and as she talked her eyes wandered and her dentures slipped up and down revealing a dark gum line. I finally asked, "Helen, how are you these days?" She took a deep breath, "My husband, he pass away last week." I dropped my jaw and said the appropriate "no!" I knew he was sick, but wasn't aware he'd died. "Oh, Helen!" I reached for her hands and she took mine. I stood at her counter as she let it all well up to the surface, "Fifty-two years I am married. Now he gone. He used to open garage door for my car, open the lights in the house for me, everything. Now there is nobody." Her chin trembled. "That's a lot to lose." I stood transfixed. Fifty-two years, you'd hardly know where you stopped and someone else started. After a minute she had regained her composure and turned over my hand in hers looking for a ring, "You married, Baby?" "No," I answered. "Das ok. There not many good mens around these days." I smiled, "so I've noticed." "Besides, Baby, all the men's are stupid. You think you find a man with sense, but he stupid too." I smirked in disbelief as Helen continued, "People say, 'you husband he a good man,' and I say, 'yes, but only because he married to me.' All the men's are stupid, Baby. The women are the better, smarter, stronger, everything. That is why it was two womens who go to tomb to make Jesus ready and everything." She patted my hand affectionately and smiled through her teary eyes. She had a point.

This morning I brought her a bouquet of flowers. Something fresh and bright. Something non-funereal. On the note I wrote, "In appreciation for everything you do and everything you are. -Sarah"
She was pleased, she hugged me, patted my backside and then shooed me back out the door past the prostitutes.