These are not normal times for any of us. If you are older, you possibly feel isolated. Issues that are minor during normal times sometimes seem impossible to solve during this crisis. Our lives almost feel like they are on hold but you take things one day at a time while hoping and praying that things will get better sooner rather than later. It can be hard because the news is nearly uniformly bad.
It is during those times that small kindnesses can make a huge difference. Not long ago, I had mentioned on Facebook that Marmite, my favorite breakfast spread, was in short supply. I did not think anyone noticed except to make comments about how yucky they found the taste of Marmite.
On Friday, a jar of Marmite showed up in the mail. My wife thought that I had ordered it. Then she happened to notice that it had come from a former roommate of our oldest daughter. We were amazed that she would take the time from her busy life to shop for Marmite and then make the effort to send it to me.
It really touched us that someone living in Northern Virginia with plenty on her own plate would think of us at a time like this. She is certainly one of those better angels among us. We have known her for years. I still remember when she and our daughter showed up close to the end of their college years with her white sofa she wanted us to keep in our Roanoke house until she had a place for it.
The two of them went job hunting together after graduating from Sweet Briar. I also remember a story of her having to straighten out a clerk at the Hyatt where I had given them some Hyatt points for their stay. We have enjoyed watching her life as it has unfolded including seeing her children grow up and one of them learn to drive. I am happy that my daughter often spends time with her. That they share their lives speaks volumes about the kind of women that they have become and the relationship they built during college. I know Sweet Briar helped with that.
This started me thinking about whom I could surprise and help. Fortunately, our oldest daughter, the friend of our better angel and also one of those better angels, had already seeded the idea when she made some masks and shipped them to us.
Last night I talked to a good friend from Canada. She told me that their garden was decimated by a late frost in June. It was one of the worst that she could remember. They lost all their corn, their potatoes turned black, and many of their tomatoes didn't make it. She said the frost was on top of thirteen inches of snow followed by another snow in mid-May. Their weather has stayed, cold, dry and windy so even the outside is unpleasant. She went to tell me about being worried about shopping. She is a few years older than us and in her mid-seventies. She said she would wear a mask but she had been unable to find one and her sewing machine was broken.
It is easy to retreat with your four walls and just hope for the best. Even things like gardening that often give us pleasure can disappoint at times when we need it most.
Because of my gift of Marmite, I am going to try to find a way to send some masks to my friend. The inspiration has come from two Sweet Briar ladies.
Maybe a gift of a few masks will make our friend in Canada know that she and her husband are not alone.
The bands of real friendship cannot be dissolved even by something as awful as the coronavirus. It might just make them stronger.
Comments