(Aside) Thinking of helping a son

Greta wasn't one to pry into another person's life, especially when it came to random people she interacted with at the store. Target, of course, was a natural place to see and meet with random people and the town, having grown leaps and bounds since she had moved in with her family some 40 something years ago, always attracted new faces. It didn't hurt that she was a former teacher and knew practically half the kids who grew up and moved out of town only to trickle their way back home to raise and rear their own little ones. The teacher in her still kept her mind sharp after retirement, making it a point to go out and mingle with plenty of others.

She, though, had something else on her mind.

Michael, her youngest child and only son, was back at home and working as a Police Officer with the local town PD. He was relatively well-liked, had a good conversation style, and was warm and outgoing to mostly everyone that he met. She couldn't help but recount the times when people would see them walking together and then come up later on to tell how he had helped fix a flat tire, played a game of horse with some of the local kids, or even just helped some animals across the streets before moving along on his way. A small town approach to big town law enforcement, he commented once, and that summed up how others viewed him.

It was telling that there were more than a few people who had asked him to run for chief of police. Michael, in his good nature, turned it down and said that he wanted to be out in the community and working among the people. Trusting police, especially in this day and age, needed to be taught and demonstrated more than just with words.

Greta smiled at that as she pulled into the parking space near her son's workplace. She wanted to tell him about the lovely woman she had met in Target. The poor thing was exhausted from the lack of makeup and the state of her hair but she still had the time to talk and be friendly to not only her but some other mothers and their young ones. She always said that the true nature of a person was never easy to hide when inconvenienced. Loss of a spouse, moving to a new place, and still having the energy and willingness to chit-chat with a rather rambunctious old woman...he could definitely do much worse than her.

I only got her first name, Erin...I'll see her again and make sure to ask. Greta stepped out of her vehicle and spotted her son pulling into the parking lot with his SUV cruiser. "Michael, you got a moment?"