It takes a while, or I should say it took me a while, to learn that others don’t always see the world as you or I may expect.

People tend to make assumptions about each other and situations and outcomes based on their own contexts and experiences. 

And be wildly wrong.  

Loss of a loved one, a life-partner,  must equal grief – is a fairly safe assumption.

Or so I thought.

A woman in her 70s sat near me in a coffee-shop. There were a few indications that she’d engage in light conversation. After a little small talk and talk about her family and some reflections on her recent travels she told me her husband of 50-plus years had recently died. 

I expressed my condolences. 

“It’s a relief, really,” she said, “I’d tried for years to get out of that marriage. He was a very difficult man.”