The purposeful walker

The purposeful walker and I have exchanged more syllables than words over the past few years. There was for a time an old dog, and a husband who walked the dog while his purposeful wife strode through the cemetery. She wears ear buds, listens to podcasts (I suspect), has a silver cross around her neck. Always leans over to scratch Lilith and offer her a good word (almost as good as a treat). Then off she goes. But today, she stopped, took our her earbuds, took the card advertising my book, inquired about the protest at the capitol a week ago. Her brother had worked in the embassy in Baghdad with the military. He'd told her about all the waste and fraud. She thinks of that now, but also thinks of the way Kamehameha Schools got "reformed," when "Mrs. Lindsey" fired so many staff members. "They got no respect," she said, "and people need that. They need their dignity." She'd worked at Kamehameha in HR, she said, a sheepish look on her face. Couldn't do anything about orders from above, but they could help people leave with dignity. And now social security and medicare. She's worried. Her husband's more hard-line, but she's thinking about her grand baby. What will happen there? Will they need to home school her, what with all the DOE cuts? "I'm Susan," I said. "I'm Janice," she said.