Mournful

An interesting thing happened in Charleston on Tuesday.

The hubby was nice enough to go with me to an art supply store on Calhoun Street. We didn't know exactly where it was and parked on the street a few blocks away. After I bought a few cool things, we headed back to the car. Since I walk faster, I told him I would go on ahead and make sure the parking meter had not run out and would also have the car cool for him when he got there.

As I was walking briskly along the sidewalk, I saw a youngish black guy stopped in front of a building taking a picture of a plaque on a wall. And there were also two white women taking pictures of it, a white church on a hill. It looked familiar. I asked the man, "Is this it? Is this the church?" He said, "Yes."

Suddenly I was overcome with grief. I could see a group of older black church people kindly welcoming a lost little white guy that evening a year ago, not knowing that his intention was evil. Being there in front of Emanuel AME Church made it all so real, so tragic and sad. I started bawling! The sweet young man put his arms around me to comfort me. Through my tears, I murmured, "That was so horrible." He said, "It's OK. We just have to love each other. We just have to love each other."

I tried to pull myself together. We let go and noticed the white women were taking our picture!
So tragedy turned to humor as the man and I automatically smiled for the camera. And then when the three of them started to talk, I stepped back and away, embarrassed. I am probably now on somebody's facebook page! Then I saw the hubby coming down the street. What was he thinking!

It really was an emotional experience, and I continued to feel very sad and shaky for a while.