Close Personal Connection

 

The drop off line outside of the elementary school was ridiculously long, Mrs. Johnson pulled into the line to wait for her turn to drop off her son so he could join his friends for another day of school. Excited that her son now had many good friends and the occasional play date, she arrived at home approximately twenty minutes after watching her son walk into the building.

               As she rounded the corner to her block, she pressed the garage door opener button that hung on her visor, watched as the door rose out of sight, pulled inside, closed the garage door as she slipped into the laundry room that led to the kitchen. She took off her high heels, escaped into her bedroom to change into her workout clothes for a few minutes of yoga to release the stress that had slowly built up as she waited in line at the school.

               Now wearing yoga pants, a loose t-shirt and her trainers, she rolled out her yoga mat, did several minutes of stretching and began her thirty minutes yoga routine. Lying flat on her back, she heard her cellphone ding to see a note from a mother of one of her son’s friends, inviting her to a meeting of several mothers to discuss an idea that had been suggested. She quickly answered and said that she would be there and was very interested in the suggested idea.

               She completed her yoga routine, took a cool shower, chose an outfit, and found the address of the coffee shop where the meeting would be held. Now feeling much better, much more relaxed, she ate a small lunch, and sent a note to her husband informing him that she would be away for about an hour to meet with some mothers from the school. He responded back with a simple “okay, have fun, I look forward to hearing what this meeting is about.”

               She noticed the time, and began planning the rest of her day. “Okay, Christy, you have about three hours before the meeting,” she thought, “make a decision what to prepare for dinner, and do some house cleaning.” Now fully relaxed and excited to spend some time with several women from the school, she walked around the house in a baggy t-shirt and socks, putting in a great effort to be productive before needing to leave. One hour before the start of the meeting, she chose a comfortable outfit, ate a small snack, sat down on the couch to relax and think through the rest of her week.

               She arrived at the coffee shop ten minutes early, was greeted by nine young mothers, ordered herself a coffee, joined them at the table and immediately broke into friendly conversation. Within the next fifteen minutes, ten more women arrived and the topic at hand began to be discussed. “Thank you everyone for coming,” one of the women said, “a few of us have been talking about bringing our children to local retirement homes in order to bring some joy into the lives of the elderly. Of course, we will need to make arrangements with at least four of the retirement homes and receive permission from the school to bring the children one afternoon a week.”

               Phone numbers and email addresses were exchanged, assignments were given, and Christy could see the excitement building as many ideas were suggested about how good it would be for the elderly to spend time with small children, and the children to understand how good their presence would be for helping others. Everyone finished their coffee, exchanged hugs, and left for their homes. Two days later, Christy received an email from the leader of the mother’s group, providing details about the four retirement homes and that permission had been received from the school, giving them the freedom to accompany the children one afternoon each week.

               Five mothers were assigned to lead the group of children each week, to different retirement homes with specific written plans for how to proceed and interact with the elderly. Christy noticed that her name was included in the fourth group and shortly after the email arrived, a second email arrived which contained the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of the other women with whom she would be working.

               Before the end of the day, she contacted the other mothers, made a plan to meet and work through the details for their afternoon trip. When her husband returned home from work, she talked through the details and the plans for the retirement home trips. She was encouraged to hear that he believed this plan was a great idea, because taking care of the elderly, bringing joy into people’s lives, and introducing a different social environment for the children would be good for everyone.

               The next day, Christy met with the four other women for coffee, made specific plans and times, and one of them offered to contact the retirement home and talk through their plan to connect the small children with many of their elderly occupants. The day of the trip finally arrived, thankfully one of the mothers was skilled at driving large vehicles, the five women arrived at the school, obtained the keys for the school van, gathered the children, and drove to the retirement home.  The eighteen children met several elderly folks in the game room and were very excited to meet new people, bringing joy and energy to people who had lacked any sort of excitement or livelihood for many years.

               The five mothers stood at the doorway and watched as the children filtered through the room, gave hugs to the old men and old women, bringing out looks of joy and excitement in many of their faces. The three-hour time period came to an end, the five mothers began gathering the children, allowing them to hug and say goodbye to their new friends. Four of the mothers took the children to the school van, while the fifth mother engaged in conversation with the head nurse at the retirement home, promising that they would return next month on the same day at the same time.

               After an uneventful drive back to the school, the five mothers delivered the children back to their classrooms, returned the school van keys, thanked the school for allowing them to bring the children to the retirement home. “It was a wonderful time,” one of the mother’s said, “it’s too bad you couldn’t have been there to see the joy and happiness in the faces of the elderly people there. I know they thoroughly enjoyed the visit and I spoke with the head nurse and promised her that we would return next month on the same day at the same time.”

               The five women left the school office, exchanged hugs, and promised to stay in contact over the next month as they prepared to meet again and revisit the retirement home. The five women drove home and two hours later returned to the school to retrieve their children, and discuss how important it is to be kind to others, to love others, and to bring joy into other people’s lives.

               Christy, her husband, and her son sat down for dinner that evening and the little boy talked through the entire dinner, telling his father about the wonderful time he enjoyed visiting the elderly at the retirement home. “It is very important to be kind to people, to love people and to bring joy into people’s lives,” the little boy said, “we’re going to go back again next month on the same day at the same time, I am so excited to see them again.”

               “That is very good, son,” his father said, “it is a common problem for the elderly to become lonely and seeing excited and happy little people brings them great joy and fulfillment. Make sure that you give them hugs and talk to them as much as you can.”

               “Yes, of course,” the little boy answered, “I did both of those things with many of the people there and we spent some time playing games and learned about each other. One older woman that I spoke to told me that she has one daughter who chose not to have any children, and she said she was sad that she’ll never have any grandchildren. I promised her that I would come back next month and we could be good friends.”

               “That makes me very happy to hear you say that,” his father said.

               “She was very happy to see all of us children arrive that day,” the little boy said, “I am so glad that we were able to visit them and bring them such joy. Maybe some other day and time, you, Mom, and I can go visit them on a day that isn’t a school day. I know they would be very happy to have more visitors.”