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"Hello!" one of the women calls out, waving at Ruby excitedly and setting her bare upper arm swinging with the motion. The two women are clearly sisters and well into their their seventies, and they both look thrilled to see Ruby.
"Helen?" Ruby says into her phone. "Can I call you back at some point? I have a couple of customers here at the store."
"Sure, hon. Call me anytime. Now that I'm not running the Oval Office anymore I'm pretty much just an old lady doing a crossword on the porch while I watch the neighborhood kids jump through a sprinkler.”
Ruby laughs at this; she knows Helen Pullman, and while she might currently be sitting on her porch with a crossword, she would be willing to bet that by mid-afternoon Helen will be sitting in a board room conducting a meeting for one charity or another.
"Okay, Helen. Talk to you soon."
"Oh, Mrs. Hudson," one of the women gushes, walking right up to the counter with the starry-eyed look that Ruby has nearly forgotten about. She's gotten so used to only seeing her friends and neighbors on a daily basis that this look of awe from strangers has nearly become a thing of the past.
"We just love you," the other sister says, stepping up to the counter. The women place their liver-spotted and gold-ringed hands flat on the counter.
Ruby smiles at them, noticing their sisterly similarities, all the way down to their soft white curls and pastel pinkfingernails. "I'm so glad you came in," she says, extending a hand to the first sister.
The women look at one another like they can't believe they're about to shake hands with the former First Lady. "I'm Delia," the sister closest to Ruby says, taking the offered hand in hers.
"And I'm Sugar," the other sister says, nearly elbowing her way closer to Ruby. "But my real name is Susannah. Everyone just calls me Sugar."
"Delia," Ruby says, "Sugar. It's a pleasure to meet you both."
"We came all the way here to meet you," Delia says, putting a hand to her chest. "I wanted to tell you to your face how much I admire you."
"She does," Sugar confirms, nodding. "She even has a framed photo of you on her wall, and the only other people she keeps pictures of are her kids and grandkids."
Ruby is incredibly flattered by this, and she says so. "I'm not sure I deserve a place of honor like that."
"Oh, you do," Delia confirms, nodding her snowy head. "You and I have a lot in common, and I wanted to handle myself the way you did."
Ruby feels a wash of sympathy come over her as she prepares to hear Delia talk about being widowed, but instead Sugar shakes her head with a disapproving frown.
"When Fred left her this past year," Sugar says, "and cashed my sister in for a newer model, she said to me, she said--'Sugar, I'm going to be just like Ruby Hudson, you watch me.' And you know what?" Sugar asks. "She has been just as classy as you, Mrs. Hudson."
"Please, call me Ruby," Ruby says, both hands pressed to her chest. She had not been expecting a septuagenarian to talk about her husband leaving her for a younger woman. "And I'm so sorry about Fred."
Delia huffs loudly. "Well, I'm not! The old goat was always running around, taking our social security checks and spending them at strip clubs."
Ruby holds in a surprised gasp, trying to imagine a man her mother's age carrying on like this.
"He even had an online girlfriend," Sugar adds, now leaning fully onto the counter as she winds up to speak on her sister's behalf. "One of those young ones you send money to and they send you back the photos of their feet."
This time Ruby can't hold it in: she makes a shocked noise. "No!" she nearly shouts, feeling scandalized on Delia's behalf.
"Yes, ma'am," Sugar says, shaking her head. "He was doozy, and I knew it the day they got married when one of the other bridesmaids said he slapped her bottom right outside the church."
Ruby clucks sympathetically. "Men," she says simply, knowing that this one word response will be enough, and it is.
"Men," Delia agrees. "Anyway, Fred left, and now here I am, seventy-four years old and had to move in with my kid sister." She tips her head in Sugar's direction. "You never think you're going to have to depend on other people when you've lived your whole life the way you're supposed to, do you?"
Ruby makes an understanding face as she nods. She's thinking about Delia's situation here; the woman has clearly done all the things that society tells women to do: she married a man, was as good of a wife as she knew how to be, probably raised his children, and then found herself--in the end--alone, through no fault of her own.
"It's wonderful that you have Sugar to count on," Ruby says, smiling at the two faces looking back at her. "I have to say that, in my own situation, the most reliable thing I've had is the love and support of the women in my life. My mother has been there for me, as have my amazing daughters, and my friends."
"Oh, you're a lucky lady," Delia says, her eyes welling with tears. "So lucky to have women around you when you need them."
"Listen, Delia," Ruby says, growing more serious as she reaches across the counter and takes the older woman's hand in her own. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you. It can really catch a person by surprise, can't it?" Delia nods and Sugar shakes her head, still obviously thinking of Fred with the disapproval of a protective sister. "But you have to find ways to stay involved with people and with life--even when it's tempting to bury your head in the sand and hide."
A tear escapes Delia's eye and she swipes at it with the hand that's not holding Ruby's. "I'm just trying to hold it all together and have some class," she says, looking Ruby in the eye. "You did it so marvelously, and in front of the entire world. I figure, if Ruby Hudson can do it, then so can I."
