First published in the Oct. 1 print issue of the South Pasadena Review.
Lady Luck did not shine on Bill Suter last weekend.
The 99-year-old South Pasadena resident failed to see the woman named Kate he wanted to meet again, despite waiting six hours last Saturday in front of the Pavilions grocery store on Fair Oaks Avenue and another several hours on Sunday.
But Suter, living up to the adage that “faint heart never won fair lady,” is not giving up. He said he will be back in front of the grocery this Saturday in hopes of meeting the woman he knows only from a single conversation they shared in the grocery aisles.
“I’m not packing it in,” Suter said. “I had several people who read the column about me in the Review stop to wish me luck, but no Kate. But I’m going to try again this weekend.”
Suter admitted he’s never done anything like this before, but he said something just “clicked” when he met the woman while shopping a few weeks ago at Pavilions after she introduced herself.
He failed to ask for her phone number and has since advertised in the Review in hopes of inspiring a dinner date. When she didn’t reply, he decided to take matters into his own hands and brought a folding chair, which he placed in between the two entrances to Pavilions.
“I’m not discouraged,” he said.
But don’t feel too bad for Suter.
He’s going on a cruise with seven women in his bridge club, for which he’s been dubbed the “designated dancer” because of his love of ballroom dancing. And he’s booked on two cruises, one over the Christmas holidays and another in February.
— Andy Lippman
