Don't I Know You?

An old woman, cheery in face and sweet in demeanor, shuffled into the library with her walker.

I greeted her from my seat behind the library counter. Her face lit up. "Oh, I haven't seen you in a long time!" she said.

I had  N O   I D E A  who she was.

She must have seen that on my face.  "What is your name, honey?"

I told her.

"Oh my oh my oh my, look at you all grown up! What a pretty girl you are! My, my how time flies."

Still,  N O  I D E A who this woman was.  So I asked, "And I know you how?"

She went on to put me in a class with her girls, and then remembered I was younger than that.

But I didn't go to school in the town I work in and when she realized I wasn't who she thought I was she saddened a bit and then instantly cheered, "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you!" she smiled.  She then made my day complimenting our wonderful town library.

She was such a dear.

She settled in to wait for her family who was using the computer while I went back to work.  But her sweetness stayed with me and brought to mind a conversation I had with my husband this week.

At the beginning of the school year, I saw a girl I had gone to school with.  For the life of me I could not remember her name.  Later, it hit me but I couldn't remember if it was pronounced Cas-ee or Cay-cee. So, I just have not said hello.

In my defense, she hasn't either.

But, the thing is, I DO know who she is even if she didn't recognize me.  And it is driving me crazy to not say hello.  And why don't I say hello?  Because I can't remember the correct enunciation of her name?

Her husband dropped one of their boys off this week.  HIS name I remember.  Matt.  You can't really mess up the name MATT.  But, because I haven't talked to his wife yet...six months into the school year, how sad is THAT (and in my defense, I don't see her often)...I didn't say hello to him.

When I told my husband this, he called me out. "That was rude!" he chastised me.  My husband talks to everyone...me, not so much.  At all.

"But I couldn't be talking to him when I haven't talked to her.  That just looks so wrong!" I defended myself.

Still.

How much nice would I have been had I not said "Hey! We went to school together and now your kids go to this school? Good to see you!"  That's all I should have said because every time I think back to then, that's what I know I should have said.

I could have been nice.

Why do I have such a hard time talking with people I actually know?  A complete stranger of a woman mistook me for someone she knew and was still sweet to me.  I could learn a lot from her.

A whole lot.