I sang the wrong verse and a stranger finished it

Dear Delyara, I play guitar on the street outside a shopping center. Most people walk past, some throw coins, and a few stand close enough to make loneliness feel briefly professional. Today, I sang an old song my mother used to sing. Halfway through, I forgot the next verse. My mind simply emptied. I kept playing the same chord, hoping the words would return. An elderly woman across the street began singing them for me. Her voice was thin but certain. I joined her, and for the rest of the song we sang to each other through traffic. When I finished, she crossed over and said her husband had sung that song during their first dance. He died last week. I told her my mother had died last month. We stood beside my open guitar case, two strangers holding the same melody for different dead people. She placed no money inside. Instead, she touched my arm and said, “Your mother taught you well.” I wanted to tell her I had forgotten the verse. Then I realized that perhaps being taught well does not mean remembering everything alone. Sometimes it means knowing enough of the song for another grieving person to find the place where she can enter.