Luckless Lady

Luckless Lady: "Luckless Lady
Sunday, September 25, 2005
-- Doug Bates

She was always there. Always.

For more than a year -- before the doctor's orders, the Weight Watchers, the new life of leafy salads with balsamic vinaigrette dressing -- you'd drop in every week or so at the neighborhood pub. Its takeout pizza was fabulous -- Portland's best, in your opinion, and well worth the 15-minute wait.

To kill that time you'd look around, and she was always there: the middle-age woman at the video slots.

She was neatly dressed and well-groomed, quiet and always by herself -- not at all a woman who would stand out in a crowd. But Lady Luck, as you began to know her, stood out because she was always there."