Are you doing alright?

A man from the church called at my house for almost no reason yesterday afternoon. Not the usual elder bloke. It was M who I heard manages the church's youth groups. Well, it was funny to find out that M's mother worked in a dinner hall at my girls' school and that I knew his lovely wife, who worked at a place where I took an ECDL course. This town is not small, but the community is so close-knit that it's easy to find out about individual's through other people, which can be surprisingly frightening sometimes. So, can't do anything bad in this town... (No, no, I haven't done anything bad... yet.)

M asked me if my girls and I were doing alright, which was the reason for the visit. Of course, I answered, "Yes" straight away. Can't be bothered to tell how I feel to people really. Why should I? If he was my very good friend, I would, though. A greeting of "How are you?" is absolutely fine to me. It's just a greeting, isn't it? But "Are you doing alright?" after greetings bothers me recently. I must say it's nice to know that people whom we don't know much care. But the question sounds as if somebody were trying to throw me in a cage of November last year and keep me in. The matter is as private as an individual's love life, you know.

Talking of being a widow, I heard from L that a widow she knew couldn't cope at all and had fallen into pieces in a bad way. Her husband used to do literally everything for her, you see. She hadn't even needed to touch a hoover!! Lucky woman! I shouldn't have been so proud of myself getting my hubby to regularly do dish-washing after nagging for 10 years... (Any dish-washing volunteers welcome!)