A Woman with a Big Heart: What “Sweet Charity” Reminded Me

Last night I saw “Sweet Charity” at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) in Brisbane, and I walked out feeling something warm settle inside me.

Charity Hope Valentine is the kind of woman life underestimates — kind, hopeful, funny, and always ready to believe there is goodness in people. She gets knocked down more times than seems fair, yet she stands back up with a courage that feels almost impossible.

What moved me most was that her optimism is not childish. It is resilient. Brave. It is deliberate. It is earned.

So many of us reach a point in life when disappointment teaches us to protect our hearts. We become careful. Selective. A little guarded. Charity reminded me that there is another way — to stay open without losing yourself, to keep believing in connection without ignoring your own worth.

And maybe that was the true beauty of the whole evening.

Sweet Charity has a way of whispering a message we sometimes forget: having a big heart is not a weakness. It is strength. It is hope. It is the part of us that refuses to stop shining, even after life has tried to dim that light.

I left the QPAC feeling lifted — reminded that there is something extraordinary in people who still choose kindness, still choose warmth, still choose to care.

Perhaps that is what makes love, at any age, possible.
Not perfection.
But the courage to stay open.