Next to our holiday balcony, there was another one used by a woman on her own.

I used to spend holidays on my own and I know there is pleasure, and less pleasure, about being on your own.

So, I asked her if she would like to share some wine with us one evening.

She was there to spend time with her son and his girlfriend, working all the hours god sent in the summer to make money.

She waited up to eat with them at the end of their evening shifts.

Meantime, we talked about her life as a single parent, changing her job because of the Greek financial crisis, learning massage as a calming therapy, how her ex-husband was a  good father but a rubbish financial provider, her new job, her real wish to retire but there is not enough money in her life…..

Then we got onto immigrants and she said, We all have to understand the new world. 

People are just trying to escape, to make a better life, to live their lives to way we do.

Climate change, wars, poverty – they all make people want to move and who can blame them?

We have to learn about how to accept that – all of us.

I have tried to show my son what it means to have a good heart.

She said a lot more, but I think you get the picture

It was a very good way to spend an evening with a stranger.