Train Lady

We met at the train station so I guess it is fitting that I am writing this on a train, on a rainy day in May.

This was not the original plan.

It has been sunny most of the week and I had planned to visit and write about one on the most beautiful places in Scotland on Earth.

But, no, it is raining. It has been raining all day and I am three-quarters full of coffee and jollof rice, in a train coach shared with a group of raucous millennials.

The sun was shining brightly over the shire, the day I met train lady.

We met on mother’s day. She was on her way to lunch with her children and grandchildren, while I was travelling to church for the yearly special mother’s day service.

Our conversation started the way all great British conversations/friendships/marriages start; with the weather.

“Beautiful day today, isn’t it?” she asked.

I smiled and nodded.

Seven years ago, I would have groaned inwardly at the obvious attempt at small talk. Now I know that there is always something to say about the temperamental Scottish weather. Like now, why is it raining? Why can’t we have no more than one season in a week, or even a day?

We chit-chatted for a few minutes, and when the train arrived, I chose to sit beside her.

She was born in the little town I work in. She’s native, I’m a recent immigrant.

She told me about growing up beside the sea some sixty-odd years ago. “We played all day by the seashore, well, every day except Sundays.” She said.

She talked about her loving but principled father.

“Life was much simpler then,” she said, “we had rules we had to obey, but we knew we were loved.”

She smiled when she reminisced about falling in love at the age of sixteen, with a seventeen year old Frenchman.

About how they built a home and business together, and the good times they had.

She looked away, but not before I saw a lone tear roll down her cheek.

She talked about his recent death.

“Life is hard,” she said.

But she was grateful.

“The grandchildren make it easy,” she whispered.

My eyes watered and I looked away.

I had heard some bad news only that morning.

“Life is hard,” I echoed.

We talked about happier things and times.

“I have been very lucky,” she said.

“You have been blessed,” I thought.

We got to our destination and said our goodbyes.

“Why are your eyes red, Sophia?” Tami asked when I got to church.

“Well the dress code is a touch of red isn’t it?” I made a feeble attempt at a joke.

Five hours later, I started the journey back to my little town.

A couple of minutes before the train pulled out of the station, a group of people got on my coach. The train was almost full, but there was a spot beside me.

She slipped in; the lady from the train station.

“Fancy meeting you again; this must be fate.” She smiled.

I smiled back at her.

This is God.

She showed me the gifts she got for mother’s day.

I showed her the gift I got from church.

“Life is beautiful”, I thought, as I looked up at her smiling face. She looked very different from the lady I met in the morning. I was changed also; a burden had been lifted in church, a prayer had been answered.

Life is hard sometimes. That is why we were never meant to go through life alone.

Isn’t He aptly named Emmanuel?

God is with us.

Isaiah 7:14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us').