Empathy

I'm at a book signing. One of my most favorite authors! I'm early and just waiting. I just read on her Facebook page that her mother passed a little over a month ago. And a fresh grief washes over me. I'm seriously fighting back tears. I'm not sure if it is truly empathy or just the reminder making me want to go hide in a bathroom stall and cry. I want to hug her when I see her. Tell her how very sorry I am. How we are now sister orphans. But I don't want to make her cry. Or embarrass her. So I take deep breaths. One after another. I wonder if anyone else sitting here knows. I don't think so. Most of the chairs are filled with women. Some noisily chatting in clutches. Oblivious. Completely unaware how her world fell away from her in separation mere weeks ago. And how she is bobbing along in the surf of life. So, that is how I felt. And sometimes still do.  And how I can only imagine she might feel.