My elderly neighbour across the street lost her husband in January this year. She is struggling to adjust to life on her own and is even more of a recluse than I am! So when she called out to me from the gate I jumped up immediately and ran to see what was going on. She had pulled out of the garage but could not pull the sliding door shut, it had somehow jammed. This was easily resolved and before she drove off, I told her to call me when she returned so I could help her.
Fast-forward several hours and I heard the car trundling down the road, so I stood outside to wait for her and open the garage. We started chatting in the middle of the road (bear in mind that there are hardly any other vehicles in this area) and you know how it is when two women start lamenting the way world… there is a wonderful word in German for it with the perfect onomatopoeia – schnattern, which is what ducks and geese do. Well one thing led to another and before I knew it, almost an hour had passed and I had extracted her life and love story. She was so eager for the company and someone to discuss the most mundane things such all our street cats and even the weather. In the year that I have been living here, this is the first conversation we have actually had, and it was absolutely heartwarming!
Neither one of us being the youngest anymore, our bladders determined the end of the conversation, but before I could turn back into the house, this lovely woman got something out of her car and handed me a paper bag. I peeked inside and it was a box of Ferrero Rocher! “Do you like chocolates” she asked shyly. Do I ever! Needless to say, I was rendered speechless and moved to tears. It was just a simple thing of pulling the garage door, but to someone who has lost much of her physical strength it was worth a box of chocolates.
FrogDiva Thoughts 