She looked at the woman in the mirror and didn’t recognize the person looking back at her. Who was this stranger? This sad shell of a woman all hunched over and small, frail and colorless, and broken on the inside. The woman had tears in her eyes. They began to fall down her cheeks like drops of rain down a pane of glass. She began to recognize this woman. She had a certain light in her eyes like a faint fog light at sea, just barely visible.
I smiled at the woman in the mirror. I whispered to her that she is safe now. I told her that she is strong, beautiful, and has everything she needs to survive. I told her that she always had it her her but she needed to believe in herself. The woman slowly began to smile back. The corners of her mouth turned up and just like magic the rosy color began to slowly come back to her cheeks. The light in her eyes continued to grow brighter. She began to laugh and she looked so beautiful and happy. She was alive once again. That woman is me.