Singing in the stairwell...

I work late on Wednesdays. Usually the evenings pass uneventfully, a little filing, a few chart notes, and not much else. Tonight, I went to get my car earlier than usual and parked it in the terrace closer to the hospital. I came back into hospital through a back stairwell that is rarely used. As the door clicked behind me, the stairwell was filled with music--someone was singing on the stairs above. The voice wasn't magnificent or impressive, some of the notes were off key, but it was an honest voice and its song was brave and uninhibited. I'm sure the woman thought she was alone. She picked a unfrequented stairwell, sat down on the steps, and started to sing. Her voice echoed around her and it must have sounded different to her as the source of the music.

I stood on the stairwell floor and listened for awhile. She continued to sing, one song after another. Maybe she sang because she thought no one was listening. Maybe she sang because the melody hummed around her as it crossed the cement, circling the stairs up and down. Maybe she sang simply because she had a song. I'll never know, but her singing was a moment of quiet joy for me. Where the world was filled with the beauty only an honest voice can bring.