Not so long ago <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was sitting on a riverside bench <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reading my new Bible <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I noticed a woman <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Young in years <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struggling with her shoes <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She eventually gave up<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And jumped into the river <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the help of a passing gendarme <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We rescued the woman from her fate <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After returning to my apartment <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To dry off and clean up <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I returned to the bench <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where I had been reading my Bible <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And to my surprise it was no longer there<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet this was unimportant in view of the drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few days later I received a telephone call <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Requesting that I visit the hospital <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the woman had requested the my audience <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had previously thanked the gendarme <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it appeared that the woman had tried to kill herself <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought that possibly my visit might aid her recovery <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She told me a story that I half expected to hear <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marie had been engaged to her childhood sweetheart <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were planning their future together <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then he met and eloped with an American heiress <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaving Marie distraught and quite alone in Paris <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a number of months she had fought her black dogs <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And decided to leave the city forever <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was going to jump from a high window <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But was petrified of heights <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So chose the swollen river instead <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked her why she had been fighting <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With her fashionable shoes when I noticed her <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had purchased them from a fashionable shop <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in her confused grief had chosen the wrong size <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This confused me as most people contemplating suicide <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would not add to their wardrobe of shoes <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added that she wanted to look good for God <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And make an impression in Heaven <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though the river would her considerable beauty <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marie had worn her engagement dress under her coat <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had not noticed this fact in the excitement of the rescue <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was then that she pointed to a Bible on her bedside table <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cops had supposed that it was hers as they found it nearby <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody actually owns a Bible I have always known this fact <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told Marie that God had been looking after her on that dreadful day <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bible was the obvious clue not her undersized shoes <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or the fact that the gendarme and I had been nearby <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We exchanged our details and promised to support each other <\/p>\n\n\n\n
TBC<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not so long ago I was sitting on a riverside bench Reading my new Bible When I noticed a woman Young in years Struggling with her shoes She eventually gave up And jumped into the river With the help of a passing gendarme We rescued the woman from her fate After returning to my apartment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37143,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37142\/revisions\/37143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}