Friday, December 28, 2018
Author Mike OConnor: Looking back
Author Mike OConnor: Looking back: A new year gives me time to reflect on the one that passed. I had a year without much fanfare, I spent a great deal of time with myself as...
Looking back
A new year gives me time to reflect on the one that passed.
I had a year without much fanfare, I spent a great deal of time with myself as I’m
my best friend. I added hundreds of pieces I had written most to be discarded
in a blog with few readers. I published another book that I wrote as my legacy
for my children and generations to come. I dated a lady for about three weeks,
took that long to see the psycho tattoo. I painted a whole bunch of houses and
kept myself busy doing the things that warm my heart. I attended numerous
school functions as well as sporting activities for my grandchildren. I ate
many Sunday dinners with family and offered my shoulder when needed. I thought
a lot about being a father and grandfather and how trying to set by example can
sometimes backfire.
I had many long-distance
phone calls to my mom who at eighty-six resides in a nursing home. We would
talk for hours remembering the old times when we were all together. She would
sometimes seem happy and other times a bit lost, but she always ended our
conversations telling me I was her favorite son and she loved me from afar. (I
am the only son) I had some health scares last year but all in all, I'm still
able to outwork most half my age. Even though I pay for it dearly. I have stock
in Advil.
Like most people,
I have probably forgotten more than I remember about 2018, but I know I lived
it to the best of my abilities. I am ringing in 2019 with an open heart and
mind and the hope that it brings only happiness and peace to all those I know,
love, and care for. Happy New year to everybody!
Friday, December 14, 2018
Author Mike OConnor: A dash of kindness
Author Mike OConnor: A dash of kindness: I was in the grocery store this evening, and something caught my eye. Very slowly an elderly woman was making her way down an aisle, ...
A dash of kindness
I was in the
grocery store this evening, and something caught my eye. Very slowly an elderly
woman was making her way down an aisle, looking confused and even a bit
frightened. I stopped my cart next to her empty one and asked if everything was
all right? She looked up at me, and I noticed a tear in her eye as she stared
at me probably wondering who I was? Again, I asked if she was all right? In a
voice so, quiet I could barely hear her she said she believed she was lost, she
remembered coming to the store to get baking supplies to make Christmas cookies
for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They all loved her cookies so.
But she couldn’t seem to find the baking aisle. "How about I help you find
it, I asked, and she nodded her reply as we began a very slow walk to the
baking aisle. She told me her mind wasn’t what it once was, and she often found
herself in situations like this. She said it scared and confused her.
Once we reached
the aisle in question, she once again got a look of confusion on her face
slowly digging into her purse and coming up with a very well-worn piece of old
yellow tablet paper.
These are the ingredients for my cookies she told me, and I gathered up the items and put them in my cart." Why don't you let me drive" I asked, and she smiled saying “such a gentleman," I asked if she needed anything else and she just shook her head no. At the checkout I put her items on the belt and watched as she once again searched her purse, this time coming out with a change purse just like I remember my grandmother having. It was even the same color of light green. The cashier said it would be $18.00 and I quickly gave her a twenty and told the old woman it was my treat. She began to weep a little and when I asked her why she just said she hadn’t been treated like this since her late husband of sixty years passed away ten years ago.
These are the ingredients for my cookies she told me, and I gathered up the items and put them in my cart." Why don't you let me drive" I asked, and she smiled saying “such a gentleman," I asked if she needed anything else and she just shook her head no. At the checkout I put her items on the belt and watched as she once again searched her purse, this time coming out with a change purse just like I remember my grandmother having. It was even the same color of light green. The cashier said it would be $18.00 and I quickly gave her a twenty and told the old woman it was my treat. She began to weep a little and when I asked her why she just said she hadn’t been treated like this since her late husband of sixty years passed away ten years ago.
Once outside I
asked her how she had gotten here? She said by taxi and would I be so kind just
once more to call one for her? I shook my head no and wrapped her arm around
mine as we headed for my car. It would be my great pleasure to offer you a ride
home, I felt her grip on my arm tighten just a little as if she was telling me
that would be lovely. We talked on the way to her house, a small cottage type
with a flower garden and a beautiful front porch that wrapped around the entire
house. “My William built this house with his bare hands, I planted the flowers
and tend to them every day." She told me her William built the huge porch because
he wanted a place their kids and grandkids could play on during bad weather and
so that he could dance with his bride all around the house, she said her William
was one in a million.
I helped her
inside with her packages, and she offered me a nice cup of tea which I said no
but thanks, I had to be running along as my wife would be wondering where I was.
She asked for my address which I thought at the time meant a thank you card
would be coming my way, so I jotted it down and said goodnight. I looked back
as I walked to my car at the frail little lady standing in the doorway that her
William built waving to a perfect stranger that didn’t even know her name, Time
passed, and I went on with my life sometimes wondering how she was getting along?
Arriving home after work one night not long ago there was a package in the mail
which I opened and found a plate with tin foil on top and a note that read,
“Dear sir, I didn’t get your name the day you so kindly went out of your way to
assist an old lady, I hope you receive this small token of my thanks and hope
even more that the postman knows who you are based on the address I put on the
package, I smiled as I read the address "Very kind gentleman with a wife
and two children who drives a white four-door car at 115 seamer street
Summerville Idaho.
I removed the
tinfoil and looked at a plate of the most beautiful Christmas cookies I had
ever seen, and I could only imagine that her mind was somewhere back in a time
when she baked them with her children, and her William would come into the
kitchen and grab a couple hot out of the oven giving her a kiss on her cheek as
he quickly left the kitchen, I sat down with my wife and children with tall
glasses of milk and we shared the plate of cookies while I told them about the
day I helped her find the baking aisle. A tear formed in my eyes and my
thoughts of her were those of both sadness and joy. The next day we decided to
take a ride and visit her, but upon arrival, we saw a moving van in the
driveway and a small group of people sitting on the huge porch. A lady in her
fifties greeted us asking if we had known her grandmother? I explained how we
had met and a smile formed on her face as she told us she had spoken of me
quite often and how I had made her feel like a person and not just some
forgetful old woman, She passed away a few days ago sitting on the porch her
William built She passed quietly in her sleep with a mountain of cookies on her
kitchen counter.
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