Unphotographable

This is a picture I didn’t take of an elderly woman on the inbound Blue Line this morning. She was sitting by herself, with her metal walker (the kind that folds into itself and has wheels on one end) standing in front of her, leaning against her knees. I looked over and saw her hands, and they looked frail and worn.

She would occasionally look up at the system map, look around. If she caught anyone’s eye, she’d look away and return her eyes downward.

As I looked down, I could see the front of her handbag, between the metal bars of her walker. On the bag was a print of Rosie the Riveter, in her classic pose showing off her arm and saying “We Can Do It!” The bag itself was a bit faded in color, but only slightly so.

On looking back at the woman’s hands, they didn’t look as frail as I had originally thought.