The stranger on the bench

There was this old man sitting on the bench. He looked at the sea, to the pink sky the sunset was painting. When I approached him I witnessed a sad expression on his face and his hands were shaking. I wasn’t sure if I should talk to him, ask him if everything is ok but my inner voice let me do it. 

„Is it ok when I sit down?“ The man looked at me and I could see tears in his eyes.

He only nodded and so I sat down on, laying my camera just beside me.

While I sat there, watching the sunset and thinking of how I could start a conversation with him, I suddenly spotted dolphins jumping out of the water. I jumped up, took my camera and pointed at the dolphins.

“Did you see this, the dolphins, there must be at least six of them,“ I said full of excitement.

I could see a slight smile on his face while I was desperately trying to capture the dolphins with my lense. 

„You remind me of someone,“ he said in a deep voice, „of someone who was always so full of joy when she could be by the ocean and take pictures from the beauty that surrounded her.“

I felt a tiny knot in my throat, a notion came up that he was probably talking about someone he had lost.

„This was her favorite place, she loved sitting here on a calm evening and watching the sunset. She got never tired of capturing the miracles nature provides. May I have a look at the pictures you took?“

I nodded, sat beside him and showed him the photos I took. You could see the dolphins jumping out of the water as if they were leaping into the pink sky.

„You have to come to the gallery in the Charlotte Road and have a look at my wife’s photographs there. I think yours would be a perfect fit to hers and would make a wonderful exhibition.“

His wife was this incredible photographer who died a few weeks ago? 

I was shocked and at the same time it was my turn to smile at him. 

A stranger on the bench by the ocean was going to change my life forever.