Gregory Smith
Lea ordered a bacon double cheeseburger and large fries at the counter. Whenever she was depressed
her way of coping was to eat. This evening was no different. She carried a tray full of food to the first
open table she saw and sat down.
She glanced across the half-empty restaurant and noticed an elderly couple eating at a nearby table. She
imagined they were probably somebody’s beloved grandparents or even great-grandparents. She never
knew her own grandpop and grandmom. They had passed away when Lea was just two. And her great-
grandparents? They died many years before she was born.
They looked so sweet together. So peaceful and content. A far cry from her current despondent mood.
It was her birthday. The big four-zero. And she was alone.
Her live-in boyfriend, Todd, had called Lea from work earlier in the day, saying he would be late. Since
there was “nothing going on” he wanted to stop by his friend’s house after work to do a fantasy football
draft. He probably wouldn’t be home till after midnight. Leave something in the oven, otherwise he will
eat cheesesteaks and drink beer at Bill’s place.
In between bites Lea looked at the old couple again and saw the gentleman feeding his wife. She wasn’t
sure why she took a photo of them, but she did. She just thought it was so sweet, so loving. This was a
real act of kindness, something you rarely see anymore. Maybe she planned on showing it to her dead-
beat boyfriend. Yep, the same creep who forgot her birthday. It wasn’t just this one day; it was an on-
going thing. Work before Lea. Softball before Lea. Watching football on Sundays with the guys before
Lea. Now drafting NFL players for his stupid fantasy football team before Lea.
Stupid, indeed.
She realized that people need their space sometime and that friends were also important. Afterall, Lea
had her own friends who she hung out with. But this was her birthday, and a milestone birthday at that.
All her life Lea had wished for a love so pure and selfless like this, a love like she was witnessing with
her own two eyes. She watched as this dear man tenderly broke apart the hamburger and bun into
smaller, chewable pieces, making it easier for his wife to swallow. He carefully placed the morsal in front
of her lips, asking her to “Open wide.” He focused on her chewing, making sure she didn’t choke. Then
he held her frosty milk shake steadily as she took a sip from the straw. Then he would try a French fry,
repeating the process again and again.
He wasn’t worried about his own food getting cold. He patiently fed her, and when she coughed or a
dab of ketchup trickled down the corner of her mouth, he stopped to gently wipe it away with a napkin
before starting again.
The gentleman finally got up to throw his trash away, carrying the two trays toward Lea and the trash
bin.
“Pardon me,” she said as he approached. “I’ve been watching and I just wanted to say how beautiful it is
that you feed your wife the way you do. How long have you been married?”
“How do you know that’s my wife?” he asked, smiling.
Good point.
“I’m just kidding you, Miss. Yep, that’s Clara, my wife. Now, guess how old I am. Not too low, mind you,”
he said.
“No more than eighty,” she guessed.
“Nope. Higher.”
“Ninety?”
“I wish,” he remarked. “Ok, I’ll tell you: I’m ninety-six and Clara is ninety-three.”
“God bless you both,” she gushed.
“If we make it till June we will be celebrating seventy-five years of marriage,” he said proudly.
“Wow,” she said, finding herself tearing up.
“Nothing to cry about,” he consoled her. “We are very happy together.”
“No, I’m just a little emotional today,” she explained. “I’m a big crier.”
“Oh, I see. Yep. I met her in grade school, back in the horse and buggy days,” the gentleman confided.
“I couldn’t help but watch you feed her,” she remarked. “I hope you don’t mind that I took a picture. I
know that’s rather rude. I’ll delete it if you want…”
“No, no,” he interrupted. “That’s fine. Although I’m not sure I understand why anyone would want a
picture of an old couple eating in a fast-food restaurant?”
“I know…weird. That’s me,” she confessed. “It’s just that, it’s not often one sees such a beautiful, selfless
love as you have together.”
“Well, Clara is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Her hands shake very badly. I help her. I know she would do
the same for me.”
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful things on the face of this earth to be so devoted to each other,
being with someone you have known all your life,” she gushed.
“Well, for instance, it’s Date Night,” he said. “We have Date Night once a month. We’ve had Date Night
when we got married until now. You must do things like that to remain close. We like to come here
because it’s cheaper; we must watch our pennies.”
“At least you are together. That’s what matters most of all,” she replied. “Today was supposed to be our
Date Night too, me and my fiancée. But he forgot. So, I’m here alone. Instead of lobster it’s a double
cheeseburger.”
“Sometimes simple is better. We never could afford lobster very often. We were always happy with
hamburger,” he said. “We still are.”
“So sweet,” she said, wiping tears away.
“Well, I better get back before Clara gets anxious and thinks I left her. She always misses me when I’m
gone too long.”
“Nice meeting you sir,” she said. “I didn’t catch your name?”
“Elmer. And yours?”
“Lea.”
“Nice meeting you too, Miss. Have a good day.”
Lea watched the old man shuffle over to his wife. He unlocked the brakes on her wheelchair, and they
started toward the exit.
“Wait, I’ll get the door for you,” Lea said. She scrambled to get up from her seat, holding the door open.“They should have automatic doors in these places.”
“This is Lea,” the old man said to his wife. “Say thank you to her for opening the door.”
“Thank you, dearie,” she said, smiling. “Happy Birthday!”
“Yes, Happy Birthday, Miss!” Elmer repeated.
“Thank you both.”
With that Elmer pushed his wife out the door, where they disappeared into the late summer evening.
Wait, thought Lea. I didn’t tell them it was my birthday. How did they know?
********
Lea returned home to a surprise: Todd was there, laying on the couch, watching sports– shoes off, out
of his work clothes, wearing a raggedy football jersey and underwear. No pants, just underwear.
She thought a miracle had happened, that he had finally remembered her birthday and left the draft
party to spend the evening with her. Her heart skipped a hopeful beat.
Instead, this is what she got:
“Bill got sick. Food poisoning, I think. Bad wings. So, we canceled the draft. If he feels better, we may do
it tomorrow night instead. Let’s leave the evening open, just in case. Oh, hey, could you make me
something to eat? I’m starving. What a long day! Could you hurry with dinner? I want to take a hot
shower and hit the sack early tonight. By the way, I’ve been thinking I know you want to go to Hawaii
this winter after the Super Bowl but I would really love to see Vegas again. Maybe I’ll win this time…”
As Lea stormed wordlessly to the kitchen, her thoughts about Elmer and Clara and their selfless,
everlasting love remained fresh in her mind. She gazed at the picture she had taken on her phone.
Maybe there was a reason she had encountered them tonight? Maybe it was fate? Seeing what a
relationship really means reminded her of what she had missed all these years.
She had “settled” far too long.
Lea took off her engagement ring and left it on the kitchen counter.
Life is too short, she told herself. You deserve better.
********
Several months after Lea broke up with Todd, she was attending a family reunion picnic to which her
Aunt Bea brought along several scrapbooks. Lea skimmed through one, stopping midway through,
staring at one old, grainy, yellow-tinged photo. It had to have been taken eighty, maybe ninety years
ago, judging from the clothes, the houses and the automobiles.
Standing there in a black and white world, next to an Oldsmobile, were a dignified, well-dressed, young
gentleman and lady. There were names written in faded blue ink beneath the photo.
Elmer and Clara.
Funny, wasn’t that the name of the elderly couple she had met on her birthday several months before,
the couple in the fast-food restaurant?
It couldn’t be. The clothes were different. He was wearing a suit and tie, with a full head of coal-black
hair slicked back, while she wore a beautiful lacy blouse and a skirt with high heels. The faces were
much younger without a hint of a wrinkle or gray hair. This couple were young and full of life. They
looked around twenty or so. Lea imagined them starting their marriage together; time was on their side
with so much life ahead.
She turned the page and found another old, worn photo of this same couple. The names were the same:
Elmer and Clara…only this picture was IDENTICAL to the photo she had taken of the couple at the fast-
food restaurant.
How could this be?
Lea asked Aunt Bea who they were. “Why dear, don’t you know? Those were your great-grandparents,
Elmer and Clara.”
“Wait a minute… I saw a couple who looked just like them a while back at Wendys. It was my birthday.
They were named Elmer and Clara too,” Lea said.
“That is quite a coincidence, dear,” Aunt Bea replied. “But your great- grandparents died a long time
ago.”
“How did this picture…my picture, the one I took, end up in this old scrapbook?” she asked.
Lea quickly checked her phone. A wry smile came over her face. There it was, the picture she took that
day at the fast-food restaurant, the shot of Elmer feeding Clara.
She thought of going back there, hoping they would return one more time. Her great-grandparents- her
deceased great-grandparents! Imagine everything they could talk about. Imagine, once a month, sharing
fries and time with them.
But there was a reason why they wanted to remain incognito. It was their Date Night, their time to be
together. They came back, not only to wish Lea a Happy Birthday, but to show their great-
granddaughter what real love was all about.
Gregory Smith is a retired medical social worker. He is active on social media, including Instagram, Facebook, X and Blue Sky. Greg enjoys music, sports, and reading in his free time. He is married with two cute dogs, Katie and Cocoa.