A stroll through the mall

Hugs and smiles.

Hugs and tears.

They were within a few feet of each other as I walked into Towne West Mall on Saturday night. The air was electric on this final weekend before Christmas.

One woman was ecstatic as she bought a calendar featuring local firefighters, her face beaming as she embraced one of the calendar's "stars."

Just outside a casket store, another woman had tears sliding down her face as she hugged a friend. Obviously, one of them had just lost a loved one.

Even in the midst of holiday excitement, life - and death - go on. I thought of the profound dichotomy of their grief surrounded by almost a giddiness of gift purchasing. Amidst the joy, devastating loss.

As I continued my walk, dodging the shoppers surging pellmell as if on an urgent mission, I noticed a woman in a wheelchair watching wistfully as young children strapped into a bungee apparatus shriek with glee has they bounded high up into the air. She couldn't have been more than 35, and her eyes were a mix of wonder and longing.

Around another corner, I saw a man holding packages as he stood perhaps four feet from the entrance of a women's clothing store. You'd have thought an invisible force field was keeping him out, even though it was obvious family members were in there. But I could tell he wasn't about to enter that mysterious, unsettling jungle.

All around me, children were darting into and out of stores, their harried parents trying to keep track of them. One boy came running out of a store, turned sharply into my path and looked up at me, his startled face wearing the expression "What are you doing here?" You'd have thought we were standing in his living room.

One of the final sights that caught my eye before I left was that of an elderly couple, walking slowly, resolutely. They each held bags filled with purchases in their hands. I wondered how many Christmases they had celebrated together. I wondered how many they had left.

Their pace told me they realized the greatest gift they likely had ever been given was each other.