Donna the Slacker

“In a way, looking back, it seemed a long, long time since she had been eighteen, but in another way her memories were so clear and vivid that it seemed like yesterday. Time was an accordion, all the air squeezed out of it as you grew old. And how strange that in your mind you did not feel any older. You were the same person, but where had the years gone?”
― Helen Hooven Santmyer, ...And Ladies of the Club

“It’s been a decade or more since I set eyes on Daryll, and it’s immediately clear that the intervening years have been less than kind to him. He’s prematurely stooped, with a ruddy complexion and a nest of black hair that’s going thin at the crown. His once-proud nose has been broken at least once, its bulbous tip stained with a frantic network of purple veins that run through his skin like rivers. But then he’s three inches taller than me, and at least six inches bulkier all round, so in some ways he’s actually rather impressive, a sort of angry bulldozer on legs.”
― Andy Marr, A Matter of Life and Death

“But surely, if you trust God, you can believe the bad moments pass, and the good memories are worth enough.”
― Helen Hooven Santmyer, ...And Ladies of the Club

“So, how are you enjoying London?’ she asks me.
‘Oh, it’s fine,’ I tell her, ‘Despite being noisy and polluted, and chock-full of pigeons with warty feet.’
Emma grimaces. ‘Doesn’t sound so good.’
‘No. They get infections, from all those hours standing in their own crap. Still, they seem happy enough, so whatever.’
Emma bites her lip, stifling a smile. ‘I meant your life there generally.’
‘Oh! Well, that’s not so bad. I mean, it’s not perfect but, you know, I’m alright. I have my home. And my health.’
‘And your feet,’ Emma says, helpfully.”
― Andy Marr, A Matter of Life and Death