I knocked on the door, and heard our elderly neighbor lady call out to me to come in. I wrinkled my nose at the funny smell of her house that greeted me; as I came in to her dining area she sat at the table, cutting up some garlic cloves. I sat down in chair across from her, and she proceeded to ask me how my day at school was, before I could even say two words, she chattering on about a thousand things, and so it went for about the rest of the visit.
I had stopped by to pick up an application her daughter had gotten for me from the place she worked at. I wasn’t exactly in a big hurry, I just didn’t feel like hanging out with this aged women. However before I knew it had been forty minutes and I really thought to my-self I could go now. But she continued to chatter on asking me questions I could hardly answer before she was off talking again. She offered me a piece of cake and some milk, and since I didn’t have much for lunch the offer sounded pretty good. As she pulled the piece of cake and milk out of the fridge she was telling me how she still enjoyed baking and such even though she couldn’t eat half the stuff because of her doctor had told her to stay away from it.
As I savored the cake (it was quite good) I studied her. “Man I am going to hate it when I get old.” I thought to my self, her face was wrinkled, her hands showed they had arthritis and her hair was gray, she even was missing a few teeth.. ”I sure hope I don’t lose any ever, I sure do like mine,” the thought flickered through my mind.
She talked about the plane that had crashed into the Hudson, and she stated she was scared to ever fly in a plane. I laughed when she asked me if I’d flown before, “sure” I replied, “it’s not as bad as it seems, it really neat to look down when your flying” she just shook her head at me.
Finally I stated, “I really do need to go,” as I got up from the table she continued her talking still…”Do you want to take a piece of pie for you mom?” she asked. I felt like she was trying to delay me, “ok,” I replied. What was another five minutes, she dished out some pie onto some paper plates. As I inched towards the door she stated she would need to go put some wood on the stove out in the garage part. Following me out the door she again asked, “do you want some garlic cloves, I know you mother would like some.” Ok, I thought if she feels like giving me some garlic I am not going to protest. As she finally handed me a garlic clove she hurriedly asked “do you want an apple or an orange?” At this I protested we had plenty of those at home and no need to take more of her stuff.
Finally she turned to me, taking my hand in hers, she grasped it, and I saw the look in her eyes, she so hated to see me go and if she could just hold on to me for a few more moments she would treasure it for a long time. I smiled, “thanks,” I said. “for the pie and the application, I’ll tell my mom you said Hi.” She nodded and smiled, as I turned to head out the door she called to me, “stop in anytime, I really enjoyed your visit!” I nodded and waved.
As I sat in my car and turned the key, I thought about the visit again, she had been lonely and I knew I had brightened her day so much more. No I hadn’t done anything really; I had nodded my head and made a comment now and then trying to answer her questions before she ran off on another topic. I had watched the clock tick away thinking of all the other things I could be doing. However as I backed out of her driveway, I thought to my self, “Really I must try and stop to see our neighbor more often.”
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