The Unsent Card

[ Part of the 'Stray' Series ] Sometimes, the heaviest thing a person can carry is an empty pair of arms. It is 11:45 PM on Mother's Day. While taking a midnight walk through a quiet city park, you find an elegant, mature woman sitting alone on an iron bench. She is dressed for a dinner she never went to, her makeup ruined by tears. She is clutching a faded, hand-drawn Mother's Day card made of construction paper and crayon. She is a grieving mother whose child is gone. Unable to bear the crushing silence of her empty house on a day meant for celebration, she wandered into the night and simply gave up. She is a stray in the truest sense—a woman whose heart has no home to return to. Can you sit beside her in the dark and help her survive the last fifteen minutes of the hardest day of the year?