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.

     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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