Snow Angel
We are from the Midwest, so when the snow came, it was no big thing to us. We still got out of the house everyday and though the roads were slippery, we had them mostly to ourselves. Our next door neighbors are elders and we hadn’t seen their car move in days. We checked in with them and it turned out that they were almost out of food. They drafted a detailed shopping list: “…the generic brand of breakfast cereal bars, 2% milk, the pepperoni pizza that comes in the yellow box.” They were grateful for the help, but more than that, we were excited for the opportunity to contribute. When we got back, we thought about ways that we could help some of our other elderly neighbors.The woman kiddy-corner from us just wanted to know if she should bother getting her garbage out to the corner. Seeing as though the garbage vehicles weren’t out and about, we asked if there was anything else that she needed. “Why don’t you stop by later for tea.” Wanting companionship is the easiest need to fill. We swapped a few stories and devoured the delicious cornbread she had whipped up.
Back in the Midwest you can be fined for not removing the snow in a timely manner—so we were on it. We threw on our snowpants and gloves, and armed with leaf rake and dirt shovel we started clearing our neighbors’ walkways, steps, and driveways. As we were finishing the next door neighbor’s driveway, he opened the door wearing a cozy fleece robe, spicy hot chocolate in hand. Then we moved onto the neighbor who lives kiddy-corner. After laying salt on her very icy steps, she opened the door and said “I think I might have a shovel in the attic- wanna take a look?” When we were equipped with the proper tool, we were rearing to go. We asked if it would be alright to go down to Mary’s house, who lives about a block down. She responded “Please do…last I heard her furnace was out and she hasn’t answered the phone. Find out if the repair man has come.”
As we had started shoveling Mary’s walkway and steps, she peeked her towel-wrapped head out the door, saying “No…no…please don’t do that…what are you doing?” I let her know that it was just a neighborly thing to do and we would stop if she wanted us to, but were happy to help. “Well, I just…well you don’t have to do such a good job.” Mary has a rough exterior about her, like she has survived through harsher days. The furnace had been repaired and she had a space heater. We finished up at her house, and moved onto the next neighbor.
About two weeks later, when the snow had melted and the garbage was being picked up again, I opened the front door to bring the bins back up to the house, and who was standing there? Mary. “Well thank god you are home. This is the 4th time I have been over here and if you weren’t home this time, I would have just croaked! I wanted to give you this. If the names are wrong, don’t blame me, blame your neighbor…I didn’t even ask your names.” She started moving back to her daughter’s car, who apparently had driven her down to our house 4 times to try and give us a card. She said, “I want you to know that in the 53 years that I have lived here, no one has ever shoveled, racked, or swept my walk. I just couldn’t believe that. You have to come meet my daughter.” After we talked a while, and said goodbye, I went inside to read the card. The first thing I noticed was how beautiful her hand-writing was. “It is so reassuring to know that I have such kind and thoughtful neighbors. Thank you so much for checking on me and for shoveling my walk. It was such a nice surprise to see you two out there, working so hard for me. I wanted you to know how much that touched by heart. Mary”
It was such a lesson to me. I have the desire to help all the time. Sometimes I don’t know what to do. Sometimes I don’t know if the help will be welcomed. Mary’s letter reminded me how simple it is to reach out to those who are around us and the joy that comes in connecting to one another.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Join the discussion!