R
rpp
Guest
As some of you may recall, I care for my elderly mother who lives with me. My mother regularly goes to one of two nearby senior centers. She is normally taken there by the local mass transit agency which provides door to door transportation for the disabled.
Today, the senior center was having some kind of rummage sale. A few moments after I got off the phone with a friend (who is also a CAF member
), I get a call from the Senior center asking me to come pick up my Mom. It was about 11:00. I guessed that my Mom had bought something big or heavy. She had said she was looking for an exercise bike. I get there and it turns out she did not get anything. It was that she scheduled her ride badly with the transit agency and was not due to be picked up until around 4:00. She had had her fill of the sale and she wanted to go home early.
The place was very crowded when Just as we are getting into the car, an odd little elderly Chinese woman, a complete stranger, comes up and says “Can you carry something for me? I only live two or three blocks away. Can you help me?”
Surprised at this woman’s complete absence of shyness, I asked, “What do you need?”
“I want to buy a dresser but they won’t sell it to me unless I can take it home now. Can you help?” (My car is easily large enough to carry a moderately sized peiece of furniture.) I got the impression that this was a lady who should NOT be drinking coffee, way too much bottled up energy.
“Okay, show it to me and will see what I can do.”
She leads me to where the dresser she wants is and I see it will fit into my car. As she is paying for it, te lady running the register asks, “Do you know this woman?”
When I rely with a simple, “Nope.”, she looked at me quizzically.
Another woman helping out gets us a hand-truck and helps me take it to my car. This lady asks, “How do you know this woman.” (The questions is understandable. She is a 4’ 9" elsederly chinese lady and I am a 6 foot tall man of obvious European descent.)
I reply, “She is a complete stranger. I came here to get my Mom. She approached me and asked if I could help carry a dresser to her home.”
"She also gave me an odd, but friendly look. She said “Well, she can be like that,” indicating she knew the lady.
We had to dismantle it a bit as it had an mirror attached to the back. Fortunately, I carry a small toolkit in my car so this was not a problem. I loaded it, but realized that this woman and my Mom would not fit as I had put the seats in the back down. to fit the dresser. So my Mom, cheerful as ever, gets back out and waits again while I take the lady and her stuff to her place.
It is a little more than “two or three blocks”. More like 10, but that was okay, I expected that. I got there, carried her dresser in, reassembled it and took her back to the senior center. It took about 15 minutes altogether.
She thanked me. I picked up my Mom and headed home.
So that was my mid-day on Saturday. She was a very odd little lady, but I am glad I was able to help in a small way.
Today, the senior center was having some kind of rummage sale. A few moments after I got off the phone with a friend (who is also a CAF member
), I get a call from the Senior center asking me to come pick up my Mom. It was about 11:00. I guessed that my Mom had bought something big or heavy. She had said she was looking for an exercise bike. I get there and it turns out she did not get anything. It was that she scheduled her ride badly with the transit agency and was not due to be picked up until around 4:00. She had had her fill of the sale and she wanted to go home early.The place was very crowded when Just as we are getting into the car, an odd little elderly Chinese woman, a complete stranger, comes up and says “Can you carry something for me? I only live two or three blocks away. Can you help me?”
Surprised at this woman’s complete absence of shyness, I asked, “What do you need?”
“I want to buy a dresser but they won’t sell it to me unless I can take it home now. Can you help?” (My car is easily large enough to carry a moderately sized peiece of furniture.) I got the impression that this was a lady who should NOT be drinking coffee, way too much bottled up energy.
“Okay, show it to me and will see what I can do.”
She leads me to where the dresser she wants is and I see it will fit into my car. As she is paying for it, te lady running the register asks, “Do you know this woman?”
When I rely with a simple, “Nope.”, she looked at me quizzically.
Another woman helping out gets us a hand-truck and helps me take it to my car. This lady asks, “How do you know this woman.” (The questions is understandable. She is a 4’ 9" elsederly chinese lady and I am a 6 foot tall man of obvious European descent.)
I reply, “She is a complete stranger. I came here to get my Mom. She approached me and asked if I could help carry a dresser to her home.”
"She also gave me an odd, but friendly look. She said “Well, she can be like that,” indicating she knew the lady.
We had to dismantle it a bit as it had an mirror attached to the back. Fortunately, I carry a small toolkit in my car so this was not a problem. I loaded it, but realized that this woman and my Mom would not fit as I had put the seats in the back down. to fit the dresser. So my Mom, cheerful as ever, gets back out and waits again while I take the lady and her stuff to her place.
It is a little more than “two or three blocks”. More like 10, but that was okay, I expected that. I got there, carried her dresser in, reassembled it and took her back to the senior center. It took about 15 minutes altogether.
She thanked me. I picked up my Mom and headed home.
So that was my mid-day on Saturday. She was a very odd little lady, but I am glad I was able to help in a small way.
