show me the meaning of being lonely...

i got to the address at about 630pm this evening. i knocked on the door and the lady welcomed me in, with a grateful smile on her face. then we sat down...

i couldn't help but notice my surroundings, the interior of the house being shrouded in darkness with only the lamp in the lounge shining down on us while the television continued its senseless blaring in the background. nobody else is at home, nobody else lives there...

she seemed eager to talk, to simply be able to have proper conversation without the feeling of being patronised. she is not the first, i've met and spoken to many like her before. we start speaking about general things, about life in australia decades ago, about growing up in holland, living through the war...we were like old acquaintences...sharing different stories from a different time, different culture.

too often are they neglected, these wonderful individuals in their golden twilight. i know not their history, i know neither their strengths nor their pain...twenty simple minutes will never be enough to discover that, but i do know that twenty minutes is enough to take the edge of loneliness away, replace the frowns with a smile, if only for a short while...