The owner of our local laundromat comes towards me as I was pulling my dried clothes out of the 2nd dryer I had used and says to me, “you are a strong woman.”
The timing was right. At that moment I was feeling pretty frustrated and overwhelmed in life - about work, caring for my all hands on deck child, feeling like there is no time for me, wondering why I am 41 years old and am still hauling laundry to and from the laundromat. All these things are running through my head as he says these words and I think, “this person sees me”. In that split second, my initial thought is that the owner of the laundromat sees all that I am doing, as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, to keep our ship afloat, to keep our everyday moving smoothly, to keep us in clean clothes...the hauling of the child, the hauling of laundry, the intensity of living in NYC. He see this, knows I need recognition, and is going to give me just that.
But no, that was not it at all. He went on to show me how to properly, and much more gently, close the dryer machine door.
