The mall lady
There was a woman that no one knew, but everyone knew. We called her the Mall Lady.
She stood out among a crowd. First of all, she was a tall woman, close to six feet, if not over. She often wore an emerald green taffeta trench coat, and her make-up was usually blue eye shadow with geisha-style red lipstick. Some days the lipstick reached from the bottom of her nose to the tip of her chin, and other days it was less obvious that it was a rectangle outside the border of her lips. Her black arched eyebrows were sometimes thick dark lines and other times light and soft, almost nonexistent.
In conversations about her we realized that no one knew anything about her, only that one could sight her at a shopping mall in the city, or on a bus between the malls in the city. We all just stared and knew that she was the Mall Lady. I never saw her in a store, only briskly walking through the food court with at least one bag in her hand. She seemed always to be on a mission, being in the mall served a purpose for her.
She died. My brother sent me a link to her online obituary and we both felt sad. We never got to know her, we only had questions about her. Who was she? How did she decide one day that her make-up was stylish? Or perhaps we were saddened because we realized that this woman would no longer be sighted at our malls.
I was always impressed by her stature, even under all her make-up and her emerald green coat you know that she had a story to tell and that it would be interesting.
Her obituary outlines that she was the valedictorian of her high school. She studied music and modelling which took her to a career in London and Paris, singing opera and performing music. She had to return to her home after an illness struck where she lived out the rest of her days as the infamous Mall Lady.
That's all.
She stood out among a crowd. First of all, she was a tall woman, close to six feet, if not over. She often wore an emerald green taffeta trench coat, and her make-up was usually blue eye shadow with geisha-style red lipstick. Some days the lipstick reached from the bottom of her nose to the tip of her chin, and other days it was less obvious that it was a rectangle outside the border of her lips. Her black arched eyebrows were sometimes thick dark lines and other times light and soft, almost nonexistent.
In conversations about her we realized that no one knew anything about her, only that one could sight her at a shopping mall in the city, or on a bus between the malls in the city. We all just stared and knew that she was the Mall Lady. I never saw her in a store, only briskly walking through the food court with at least one bag in her hand. She seemed always to be on a mission, being in the mall served a purpose for her.
She died. My brother sent me a link to her online obituary and we both felt sad. We never got to know her, we only had questions about her. Who was she? How did she decide one day that her make-up was stylish? Or perhaps we were saddened because we realized that this woman would no longer be sighted at our malls.
I was always impressed by her stature, even under all her make-up and her emerald green coat you know that she had a story to tell and that it would be interesting.
Her obituary outlines that she was the valedictorian of her high school. She studied music and modelling which took her to a career in London and Paris, singing opera and performing music. She had to return to her home after an illness struck where she lived out the rest of her days as the infamous Mall Lady.
That's all.
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