Although a police officer stopped traffic for her, I didn’t start crying for that reason.

When the traffic light changed to red for the third time, I was already late to pick up my niece from daycare. I was tapping my steering wheel and tried not to loose it while two cars behind the front.

Then I realized why it had all stopped.

An old woman with a cane was being walked slowly by a police officer who had entered the crosswalk, flat hand up, halting on both sides. She wore this huge brown coat and held a tote bag as if it were a hundred pounds to her chest.

It seemed as though she had to negotiate every step as she proceeded with such care. She was not hurried by the police. He kept up with her, even grinning at her when she stopped in the middle. Even though it was such a minor thing, it made me feel something.

Indeed, I may have shed a tear or two.

That isn’t the whole tale, though.

Because the woman raised her hand slightly, as if waving to someone, and looked directly at my car as she stepped onto the curb. I didn’t return the wave. I was unable to. My heart just fell.

That face was familiar to me. She was someone I knew.

I was confused by the coat, but inside that hood, it was she.

It had been twelve years since the court day when I had last seen her. Not since the day she said, “Tell your brother I forgive him,” after turning around.

Maribel was her name. My brother struck her with his vehicle.

The night was wet. He was driving home from a party at the age of nineteen. Too late to swerve. It wasn’t until she was on the hood that he noticed her crossing. Maribel had a ruptured lung and two shattered legs. Mateo, my brother, never really recovered from his drinking issue and ended up with a record.

She had the option to file a lawsuit. She didn’t.

She might have detested him. She didn’t.

She requested the judge to be lenient despite using a walker and limping into the courtroom. told everyone that the only way she could get better was to forgive.

Mateo sobbed more intensely than I had ever witnessed.

After that, life simply went on. He relocated to a different state. Like a chapter you don’t want to read again, she vanished from our lives.

Right up till now.

I just sat there with my hazards on and my heart pounding after pulling into a nearby gas station lot. I was completely oblivious as I watched her shuffle down the sidewalk from the rearview mirror.

I’m not sure what possessed me, but I yelled out her name. “Maribel?”

Slowly, she turned. regarded me with the same gentle gaze I had seen in the courtroom. “Yes?”

With trembling hands, I took a step forward. “My name is Sol. Mateo’s sister.