By April Terry

“Maybe the best thing that you can do for him is just to be his friend and be there.”

Those were the words from the movie “The Soloist” that we saw this afternoon. After trying to save Nathaniel Ayers from a life on the streets and mental illness, Steve Lopez finally comes to realization that he is unable to save his friend and unable fix him. I reflect upon those words today because before the movie, we ran into a friend who was the very lady who brought together my husband and I nearly fourteen years ago under the guise of playing cards. Her invitation resulted in our marriage less than a year later and although I live within a mile of her home, I haven’t seen her in years. You could say that we haven’t exactly “been there.” We caught up over dinner this evening after the movie, but I felt a pang of guilt at my own absence.

Read the rest of this entry »

by April Terry

I wandered into line number seven of my local grocery store with two hundred and thirty six dollars worth of groceries. Going into a shopping spree that large, you tend not to be in a hurry, but I was taken back when the lady in the line immediately asked me for my savings card. “Oh, sorry, I’ll get it, but I don’t have my regular helper today,” I explained hastily, while I started to try to remove the contents from my cart even faster since my purse was trapped under half a dozen items.

The cashier was an excessively cheerful lady with several studded crosses pinned to her name tag and apron along with a few employee awards and a smiley face or two. She asked me if I would like help emptying the cart. Misunderstanding her original question, I politely declined, but she took no notice and insisted that Jake the bagger boy start emptying my cart for me. I didn’t argue, but wasn’t sure why she seemed in such a hurry to get rid of me. Even so, I started to put in my cards and got to the business at hand.

Read the rest of this entry »