Missis President

A couple of months ago I was waiting at the bus station one evening for the bus number 21 to take me home.

An elderly Maltese lady approached the station right when we saw the bus 21 arriving. 

"How lucky you are! You came exactly at the right time" I said to her.

Only that the bus 21 didn´t stop for us ...

We both were waving him down but the bus driver, though the bus was almost empty, decided to not stop for us.

A bit shocked, very surprised but laughing at the same time we expressed our opinion about that rudeness.

Now we needed to wait for about 20 minutes to catch the next bus.

Which gave us the opportunity for a chat. And it was a very pleasant chat! That elderly lady was so much fun!

We even kept on talking when we finally entered the bus together. What a coincidence that we even were heading for the same destination.

When we stood on the pavement and saying our Good byes, Doris, I learned her name was, gave me a hug.

"It was a pleasure to meet you. Hopefully we will meet again. What is your name?"

"My name is Ursula."

I was spelling my name slowly and carefully. Cause surprisingly, though there is a St. Ursula Street and a St. Ursula Church in Valletta, Maltese people do not find my name easy to pronounce or to remember.

But Doris was different.

"Ah, Ursula, like our president!"

Taken aback a bit I was looking at her puzzled. Our president? Which president did she mean? 

"Yeah! You know, the EU president?" she told me smirking about her own cleverness. 

Of course! She was right! Never thought about explaining my name as a comparison to the actual EU president.

"Ahhhh, Ursula von der Leyen you mean!" I was laughing so hard. "You are completely right!"

With a big grin on our face we were parting and I was so happy to have met such a nice Maltese lady with whom it was so much fun to talk to.

After that, when Corona crisis started to hit us, I needed something from the pharmacy. And there, asking the shop assistant for face masks, was Doris in all her glory!

Would she remember me?

"Hello Doris, how are you?"

Doris face lit up after the first moment of surprise: "Hello, Missis President! How are you doing? So good to meet you again!"

Not only did she remember me, she also gave me her mobile number: "Listen, let´s meet for a coffee sometimes."

Would have loved to do so, but then the Corona crisis hit us and for the next three months nothing was as it was before.

It was last week when we again ran into each other next to our bus stop. "You are still here, Missis President. I thought you might have left Malta. How are you doing?" 

Doris obviously was as happy as myself to finally run into each other again. So we agreed that I would call her and we´ll find time to go for that long awaited coffee together.

Today was the day!

We met in the evening, took a little walk to an Italian café and Doris insisted to invite me for a coffee ... and "for a cake of course". 

We sat down and chatted for quite a while. We each had two extremely fresh and delicious Italian sweet treats while I´ve learned about her life and she asked me about my life. 

We never ran out of topics and time flew. 

It was a very pleasant evening being with that delightful 84 years old Maltese lady who loves to joke and who enjoys her life as much as she can. It is inspiring how she see things and how she thinks about the actual situation, politics or the way generations changed! I so do hope that I can be like her later!

Walking home together we agreed that we have to do that again soon.

"Next time it´s my turn to invite you!"

"We will see when it comes to that." Which made me smile. I guess Doris can be very bossy and for sure she is as stubborn as me. Which makes me even like her more.

Reaching the corner where we had to part, we hugged and she bowed: 

"Missis President, please cross the street safely!"