Miss Penny was a lovely woman, and she just didn't deserve all of the difficult times she had been through over the past several years. Her husband had left her, choosing to chase after younger women. It wasn't even one woman in particular, he just didn't want to admit that he was getting middle-aged, so off he went to try and be young forever.
Miss Penny was left with raising her two children alone, and my wife and I frequently baby sat for her, so I got to know her really well. They lived in our town about two blocks from us. Sometimes she would call my wife to go out for coffee together- she just needed somebody to talk to and share her pain a little. Often my wife would come back nearly in tears herself.
"Miss Penny is so wonderful, what did she ever do to deserve this?" my wife would say. Or, "Poor Miss Penny, she is lonely and said she misses the closeness of physical touch more than anything."
I would listen and nod as my wife told me about the pain and loneliness that Miss Penny was experiencing.
Often she would say, "I wish there was something we could do for her."
I have to say that the thought had crossed my mind about "helping Miss Penny" but I didn't dare mention it. Finally, after one particularly bad phone call with Miss Penny my wife said something.
"Isn't there anything we could do for her?" she said to no one in particular (although I was the only one in the room).
I said, "Well, what would you do for her if you could do something?"
"If I were a man, I could take her in my arms and let her know that she is special, that she is beautiful, that she is wanted."
