Three Things About Elsie

by Joanna Cannon

I never thought I would lose the horizon along with everything else, but when you get old you realize whichever direction you choose to face, you find yourself confronted with a landscape filled up with loss.

It makes you wonder if you did have a purpose, but it floated past you one day, and you just didn’t think to flag it down.

When your days are small, routine is the only scaffolding that holds you together.

It’s strange, because you can put up with all manner of nonsense in your life, all sorts of sadness, and you manage to keep everything on board and march through it, then someone is kind to you and it’s the kindness that makes you cry. It’s the tiny act of goodness that opens a door somewhere and lets all the misery escape.

“Every journey takes courage.” Elsie turned away from the painting. “Even the ones in which we have no choice.” * * * Captain

“No matter how long or how short a time you are here, the world is ever so slightly different because you existed. Although I’m not sure how anyone can ever prove it.”