Flowers for Grandma

32 DAYS LEFT

Around 12:30 this afternoon someone rang my doorbell.  I checked out front to see if I saw the UPS truck or maybe a friends car… nope, so I didn’t get the door (thinking that it would one of the Jesus freaks I’ve seen roaming my street trying to convert ‘the lost’ or someone selling something).  After about 5 minutes, it rang again.  A little more intrigued I went downstairs.

Through the Portuguese lace window treatment I saw a slightly over-weight mid-40s man sweating profusely, he had a 5′oclock shadow, a cane and a orange hospital band on his wrist…. I opened the door slowly.

He said his name was Dave and that he lived at XXX Eugenia Street (the street behind mine) and today was his grandmothers 93rd birthday.  I said ‘OK’, not knowing where this was going (or if I was about to get cane-raped).  He then told me that he had worked for the city up until a few months ago when his kidney failed and complications from that made walking more difficult for him.

He said that my yard was very well kept and that the flowers were amazing and asked if he could pick some flowers to give to his 93 year old grandmother for her birthday because he did not have any money to buy her a present - the disability hadn’t kicked in yet.

Of course I said yes.  Dave and I slowly walked around my backyard together, him telling me which flowers he liked, me picking them one at a time.  Each time handing the fresh flower to him slowly, not to disrupt the others in the bunch.

After about 3 minutes of flower picking he was satisfied with his bouquet.  We walked out to the driveway where he thanked me, said I was a kind and generous man and said that he would tell his 93 year old grandmother that ‘Ian’ wishes her the best.  He hobbled out of my driveway, red-purple-green bouquet in hand, he turned left out of my driveway - heading to his grandmas.

I came back upstairs - told Amy the story, she almost cried.   We are so lucky to have our health and each other - Dave reminded me of that today and I thank him.