“Hi there! I love your hat and scarf! They’re so vibrant!”

“Thank you.”

“Do you live in this neighborhood?”

“Yep, been in San Francisco since 1964. What about you?”

“I live in Hayes Valley, been here for about 6 years. I’m originally from Atlanta though.”

“Oh yeah? I’m from Florida.”

“What brought you out here?”

“Just got tired of Florida. And I wanted to come out here to be with my cousin. He was out here by himself. He was an only child, and I got out here and I stayed. He just died on me last year.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, he was the first black guy to work on the Golden Gate Bridge. He took em all the way to the Supreme Court and won the case.”

“Why’d he take them to court?”

“Because they said he didn’t know how to do the work so he sued them and won. He was in the navy and the material the used to build the bridge was the same the used to build ships.”

“Good for him. What about you? What have you been doing out here?”

“I retired in 2010 from the San Francisco Unified School District. I was working in the pre-k department for 37 years. My husband died and I had a brain anuersym. They say I’m not supposed to be here. But I’m 69 years old, thank God.”

“Well you look fantastic. It made me smile when I saw you, I said ‘Man, that woman is stylin’ over here.”

“Thank you. I retired in 2010 after the anuerysm. I tried to go back to work but I felt that when children come up to me I wanted to be prepared. After I first had it, I had to stop and think for awhile when someone would ask me something. I just got worried that a child would come up to me and ask something and I wouldn’t know what to say so I decided to retire.”

“So what do you do now?”

“I’m an apartment manager. My husband died in 2004 so I’m still there too. So it’s been and up and down road but God is good.”

“Amen.”