Dorothy

it has always been a secret desire of mine to help an old lady rake her leaves. partly because both of my grandmas live in distant lands and I rarely see them. partly because I NEVER get to rake leaves. like ever. (woah, I almost just burst into song there...)
you know like in Frog and Toad when they both want to do something nice for the other, so they go to each other's houses and rake the other's leaves into a great big pile? I think a brisk wind blows all their work to smithereens, BUT it is filled with amphibious love and all that raking looked like fun. this must have been the seed that planted such a love of raking leaves in my heart. I know most people don't share this love...clearly they never read Frog and Toad as children.

so there I was today, strolling merrily along various residential streets on my lunch break, breathing in the crisp autumn air, watching someone paint a house, smelling cut grass, feeling the crunch of fall beneath my feet WHEN! I saw her. a frail, little old lady bent over a rake, slowly brushing leaves into a pile. she looked up and I said a rather exuberant, "hello!" she sort of said hi back, but it didn't look like she was having the best day. I took a few more steps but knew this moment was destined. if that had been my dear old Grams I would never let her rake her own leaves if I was there to do it. I wanted to be a grandkid and do grandkid things. I turned back, "want me to help you rake your leaves?" "huh?" apparently she was hard of hearing..."want me to HELP you RAKE your LEAVES?!" I guess the answer was yes because in a minute she had gotten an extra rake and between her and me we scared every last one of those brown leaves out of that little lawn and onto the side of the road. I thought she was a crabby old lady at first, but she warmed up in a few minutes and soon we were gabbing along merrily. she told me all about her European cruise this past summer and how Iceland wasn't at all what she had imagined. she told me about her African safari trip the year before and how she liked her tour guide so much she brought him over to live with her for a month. she wished he could stay, but it would be impossible to get him a green card...

as I listened to her talk I felt like I was in heaven. grandkid heaven. in my mind we were sitting all cozy-like over a cup of tea...cookies just to the side...like I would imagine grandmas and granddaughters do. I wanted to hear all about her life and her family and her trips across the world. I wanted to know if she was ever married and what her life had been like growing up. I sort of wanted to ask her if she would adopt me as an honorary grandchild. but before I got too carried away with my daydreaming I said goodbye and jogged back in time for my afternoon shift.

a smile stuck on my face for the rest of the day. I got a whole lot more than just a fuzzy feeling of fulfilling a lifelong dream. I had made a friend.