[Blade]

When I was a small child there was a thicket with a bunch of plum trees across the street from our apartment. I came out on the other side of the thicket one day and an elderly lady was getting her paper out of the box. She began talking to me and we fell in love I think that very minute. She and her husband didn't have any kids of their own, but had great nieces and nephews around my age.

Mrs Ross was diabetic, of course I had no idea what that was at 4 yrs old. I'd go visit Mrs Ross several times a week and before I left she would prop her feet up on a little stool and have me rub lotion on her feet, they were so calloused and crusty from the diabetes. I'd wash my hands and she'd give me a piece of candy and sometimes a dime and I'd be on my way home before the street lights came on.

I went to visit her one day and she was in her back yard raking leaves. We chatted a bit as she raked then she gave me the rake, telling me she would be back in a bit. I don't know how long I raked, but when she came to the porch and called me to come in, the closer to the house I got the better I could smell her homemade cookies, cooking. Yup she gave me some milk and cookies for raking for her. The next day I made several trips with her small wheelbarrow and dumped the leaves at the back of the property. She gave me a whole quarter for that, and I'm sure I lotioned up her feet before I left and got a piece of candy.

She didn't always pay me for doing things for her and Mr Ross, but she always thanked me graciously. They would talk and tell stories of "the old days". It was likely here that I learned to listen to and enjoy the elderly. Not just listen but really hear what they are saying. They also are credited along with several other adults in my younger years, of teaching me that you don't always get paid to do things for people, there are many times you just give of yourself, even if it's only a foot rub or listening and you don't expect anything in return.

Even after we moved across the river and I got old enough to drive I'd go see Mrs Ross. Mr Ross had died many years earlier but she stayed at the house and even in her 80's would take the city bus to church or to town. I don't know that they ever owned a car. She taught me kindness and gentleness and so much more.