Fun Monday #32, A Good Deed

Nikki at anticsofacrazymom is hosting this weeks Fun Monday.
We've seen your shelves, peeked inside your cabinets, looked at what your house looks like in both the summer and winter, viewed at some of our handmade pieces and even talked about our best friends. Now it's time we do something. Have you ever had someone out of the goodness of their heart do something for you without anything asked in return? Offered you money when you needed it the most? Helped you change a flat tire in the pouring rain or even just simply held the door open for you when you had your hands full? For Monday, September 10th, we are challenged with doing a good deed. I am not looking for a story of when you have offered your help in the past, I actually want you in the next two weeks to go out and help someone. Go visit a nursing home, cook dinner for someone sick or with a new baby, donate to a charity or even send just a "thinking of you card" to someone who needs it. It doesn't matter what your good deed is, or how great it is. It just needs to help someone!

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I never have set out intentionally looking for an opportunity to do a good deed, although that would be a desired objective.

Good deeds generally are something that you happen upon and respond out of the goodness of your heart.

Such was the case one morning while I was in California visiting the newborn grandson, Dinkum.

My daughter Jen was asleep with the baby, finding relief from a migraine. Grandpa (the hubby) was out riding his bicycle. I spent the morning with five-year old Goober and 2-year old peanut.

I knew that my responsibility would include walking Goober to the bus stop for her 11:30 afternoon kindergarten bus.

When the time arrived, I helped Goober and Peanut into their shoes and we walked out into the 100-degree plus weather for the two-block walk.

I was thankful for the shade of the tree and the fact that neither of the children seemed bothered by the oppressive heat as we waited for the bus.

I noticed an elderly woman with a cane walking on the far side of the street. ‘She must be a glutton for punishment just like the hubby,’ I thought, ‘exercising on such a hot day.’

The bus arrived, Goober climbed aboard, and Peanut and I began walking back home.

I was surprised to see that the woman had crossed the street and doubled back towards us.

As we approached her, she raised her hand to her forehead to wipe off her perspiration as she spoke.

“Do you know where OLD GREY MARE Drive is?” she asked. “I went out for my morning walk and turned the wrong way. Now I don’t know my way back.”

The streets in the development where my daughter lives are ridiculous. Names change at intersections and the asphalt curves, circles, and dead end in the most bizarre designs.

I didn’t know where that street was and explained to her that I was a visitor.

Just then the mail carrier drove around the corner, so I flagged him down.

“Do you know where Old Grey Mare Drive is?” was my hopeful query.

What a shocker when his reply was uncertain. He knew it was in the area. He pointed in the direction that he thought it was.

The woman thanked us for our help and began ambling away in the course he had suggested.

Meanwhile, Peanut and I needed to get out of the sun.

I worried about her the five minutes it took little Peanuts legs to walk the two blocks home.

“We’re home,” I informed Jen, when I pushed open her bedroom door. “But, I’m going to jump into the car and see if I can help a lost elderly woman find her way home.”

Fortunately, Jen had a good idea where the street was (close to the park where she takes the kids to play.)

I drove down the street and found the woman quickly.

After helping her into my daughters SUV, I introduced myself. She told me her name was Yvonne, and she had recently moved in with her daughter. I suspected it was an elder care situation.

I drove the way Jen took me with the kids on the previous day. I found Old Gray Mare Drive right where Jen said it would be.

I hopped out and walked around to open the door and help her down.

She breathed a deep sigh, thanked me with much dignity, and then spoke quietly.

“My daughter is going to be soooooo mad at me,”

I smiled and waved my goodbye. Then the blogger inside of me smiled again - because I realized she had just completed my Fun Monday assignment.

PS. The other good deed is - we opened our yard up to the Hospice Annual Pond & Garden Fund Raiser this weekend. We've been extremly busy this past week trying to get it perfect. We know the fund raising was a success - and I will be posting pictures of We Went To A Garden Party - Year Two sometime in the next week.