July 17, 2003
Brighten someone's day.
Posted by Jess in
Day to Day
I leave a client site the same time weekly. The first time I left, there was someone sitting by the door, so I waved, said goodnight, and left. Every week since then, he’s been there, and I always still wave and say goodnight. The look on his face when I wave to him makes me think that he looks forward to his smile and wave every week.
It reminded me of a lady who used to live in our old apartment building. Whenever Matt, Werb (our old roommate) and I would drive up the apartment driveway, there was a lady sitting on a rocking chair outside, she had to be no younger than 90.
Matt and Werb used to wave at her, and she’d never wave back. So one day Werb said, “I’m going to make that lady wave at me if it’s the last thing I do!”
So he waved, and waved, and waved. (I think all she did all day long was sit out there on that rocker!) Finally, one day she waved back. And then she kept waving. And then she started smiling when she waved.
When Werb moved out, Matt took over the waving. If you could have seen the way her face lit up every time we went by! You could tell that it was probably the highlight of her day. She’d stretch her arm out and sit up straight and wave.
I think she was still there when we finally moved into our house.
I’d like to think she misses us.
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One more thing... the wave was not your typical wave but the "floppy hand" wave. By this I mean she lifted up her right arm leaving her wrist limp and procdeeded to move here arm up and down just letting her hand flop with the motion of her arm.
I think that is what stands out most cause' I think Werb and I laughed the first time we saw it :-)
Matt
All I remember is driving to class every day for four years... seeing that lady on my way in and on my way home:
rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock.....
but if Matt or Jay was in the car:
rock, rock, rock, *wave* *wave* *wave* *wave*
LOL! What a sweet lady. :-) We should take a road trip to Kingston Gardens!
I know, she was so sweet!
I do miss those apartments. We had so many good times there. Mario Kart, Mario Party, Goldeneye... mudslides. Mmmmm... "2 ounces, that's the same as cups, right?"
Those were some GOOD mudslides! LOL
That's so cool. It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle-bustle of life and get those blinders on and not LIVE. It's like Robert's blog where he's got the quote "Everybody dies, but not everybody really lives." For the past two years (almost) I'm doing the "boomerang" - working again at a company at which I'd worked for over 10 years until 1996. I'm amazed at how many folks are still there and remark on some *little* kindness from the past. Things that can seem so trivial and insignificant can make such a big difference. OK, I'm going to make an effort to remember your post this week and be a bit more aware of the opportunities that arise. Thanks.
Isn't it strange how it works out that way? How you always remember stuff like that? Before we had a REAL mailbox (heh) we'd have to go to the Post Office counter. The regular postal worker who worked there knew Matt and I were a couple because both our names were on the PO Box, but had never seen us together (one of us would get the mail after work).
So he's always joke around with us, and tell us to say hi to the other one... whenever I got a package that was obviously something like makeup or clothes, he's tell me to tell Matt to enjoy the package, and that he hoped it would look good on him. ;-)
It was just nice. I always left there with a smile.
