This week’s GirlieOnTheEdge challenge prompt is bridge—six sentences, no more, no less.
- Hanging in her living room, my friend Majda had a picture of the Stari Most bridge in her hometown, Mostar, Bosnia–before its destruction.
- She had left her torn country with her two beautiful daughters and what she (and they) could carry.
- In the U.S. she was learning her fifth language and trying to find a bridge between this unknown inexplicable country and the one she’d left.
- She saw no bridges in this country
- “I don’t even know my neighbors’ names,” she lamented. “They leave their apartments in the morning, jump in their cars , and go to work.”
- “In the evenings, they shut themselves in with their TVs and their air conditioners.”
Very cool looking bridge. I bet the town beyond is too. How heartbreaking to know it was destroyed. What an extraordinary feat your friend performed so it does seem more than sad she found no “bridges”. Much of what we take for granted I would imagine is seen as other worldly at times by those from distant countries. For a lot of people it is work, TV, work. But not everyone is like that! I hope Majda meets some people she can get to know and develop a friendship with. How else do we establish a sense of community?
Her husband and father died during the war–not from war injuries. It had been several year by the time she got here. I told her that someday she would meet a man she could spend her life with and she said, “No, that will never happen.” I’ll bet you can guess the end of this story (as I know it). She did in fact meet a man, remarried, and moved halfway across the country. I’ve mostly lost touch with her.
Such an important analogy of real life. Well done!
Thanks Lisa. I’ve been scrambling to keep up, but haven’t done very well at checking everyone else’s work.