in time this too shall pass

I recently spoke to a guy who was my age who talked about his struggles with grappling with the deaths of people close to him. After he spoke, I told him how I completely relate and resonate with  how he feels and empathize with him. I then told him that  he should seek help and not resort to the things that he told me he does to cope. Now, by no means was I being judgmental about the means he used to cope, nor am I license professional to give him the help he needs. But as someone who cares about people, as someone who is empathetic, and as someone who can relate to how he feels, I said something. I told him how my partner was a victim of gun violence (as someone close to him was). When I told him that, he looked at me with a straight face and said, “Wow. By looking at you I would have had no idea that you deal with that. My auntie always said this, but man, we really should be like Black women. You have a straight face and is so put together that I would have had no idea that you dealt with that”. He went on to share how he admired women’s strength to give birth and carry on with their lives.