Beautiful
A chance encounter with three strangers renews our faith in humanity
Strolling around Killarney National Park in Ireland, Peg and I stopped to review the trail map, while Caroline focused on taking some “artsy” shots of flowers in the nearby glen.
Peg and I spent a while trying to interpret the trail map, which seemed somewhat different from the paper one we were carrying. We scratched our heads and traded queries and comments, put our paper map on top of the permanent one, looked around for any legend that would provide us a sense of scale (is this a ten minute walk or a ten mile walk?)
Ultimately we were trying to decide if we would have the fortitude to walk the entire path before lunch or try something a little shorter. We decided it would come down to Caroline and her interest in a longer walk. We needed to get her opinion.
We looked up. Caroline? Where did she go? I thought she was taking pictures of —
Huh….?
We looked up to see three very excited ladies buzzing around her and having their picture taken with her. Caroline was polite and perplexed. They were treating her like they had just run into Taylor Swift in Ireland.
Each woman was taking turns standing with her while the others snapped shot after shot, calling instructions to one another and to her. None of them was speaking English.
Caroline’s face was equal parts bemusement, confusion, and mild terror.
Being the good, protective parents we are, Peg stood there laughing and I took a video.
Once the photo op was completed, one of the ladies approached us. She spoke almost no English. She made a hand gesture to ask “is she yours?” And we nodded and smiled. She smiled and said “thank you.” And then pantomimed a circle around her own face and said:
“Beautiful.”
Something welled up in me. But all I could say was:
“Yes. We agree. Thank you.”
