Elderly Couple Down the Street

Lynn and I were cooling off on our front porch after a 3 mile walk. We were sipping on a bourbon inspired mixed drink. We noticed a family heading up the hill. Two young boys were racing each other up the hill, while the Mom and Dad lagged behind. The boy who was in the lead took a misstep and elbow dove to the ground, his brother tripped over the tumbler and took a knee dive of his own. Mom and Dad rushed to the crying boys. Mom lifted the son with the elbow scrape. Dad lifted theson with the skinned knee. We watched the whole thing hapen as if it were in slow motion.

By the time that the wounded parade got to our house, Lynn had already gone to our fridge and grabbed a couple of popsicles. When they reached the sidewalk in front of our porch, Lynn said "that was quite a fall. Would the boys like a popsicle?"

The family stopped. The Mom said "that would be nice."

Lynn came down the steps with popsicles already unwrapped and handed one to each crying child. The boys were taken by surprise. The wounded brothers accepted the popsicles and went right to work on them. They stopped crying. The parents thanked us. We chatted for a bit. As it turned out, the family lived on our street. Serenity is a long street.

We went back to our drinks before heading inside for some reading, scrabble and teevee.

It was yet another in a series of lovely days even as a deadly virus swirled around us.

A week later Lynn was looking at our community web site. She noticed this entry and read it to me.

"It's so wonderful to live in a friendly diverse community like ours. Last week our boys were racing up Serenity hill when they took a spill one over the other. They got scraped up a little bit and they were crying. My husband and I picked them up and tried to calm them down and soothe their pain but it wasn't working. Then an older woman came out of one of the houses, carrying unwrapped popsicles which she offered to the boys. The boys took the popsicles and stopped crying as their pain eased. We chatted with the elderly couple who were so sweet and so kind. It's great to have neighbors like them."

Lynn finished reading the entry.

"Wow, Lynn, when did you get older and when did we become elderly", I asked with a "sweet" smile.

Lynn responded in kind.