Earlier today I was browsing an aisle of books at Target when I heard a voice behind me say, “Bet you never met anyone who can’t read anymore but still likes to look at books.”
I turned around and there was an elderly man in a wheelchair there. His eyes were sad. I asked him why he couldn’t read, and so began a half hour chat there in that aisle of Target, with a man who was clearly very lonely. He was 77 and had had two strokes some years prior (I believed him based on his stutter and the trouble he had recalling certain words), and now he lives in an old folks’ home. He was on an outing with several others from the home, and later, on my way out of the store, I saw the van from his senior living facility to back up his story.
We talked about his family and his past careers, and about his daughters and how two of them committed suicide when they were in their twenties. Tragic, isn’t that? Who knows what this man’s family was like or what kind of father he had been, but it struck me that it hardly mattered now. Now, he was just lonely. Lonely enough to strike up a conversation with a stranger in an aisle at Target.
The old man asked if I was married, and then we talked about Matthew a little while. He said to me, “You’re a beautiful girl, and you tell that husband of yours he’s a lucky man. And I KNOW women.”
It was cute, and not at all creepy. I asked him his name. It was Jim, and it just so happened that we have the same exact last name! He got such a kick out of that. Weird coincidence, isn’t it?
Our conversation wrapped up, and I told him he should give me his number so I can call to check on him sometimes. (He had said his two remaining daughters never visit.) But he couldn’t remember the number to his senior home, so as I scribbled mine on a scrap piece of paper from my purse, he thanked me so sincerely, and said I would have made a wonderful daughter. That was a great compliment.
And as I drove home from Target today, I couldn’t help but think about how easy it is to make life nicer for others. For many people, especially older folks, all that’s required is a listening ear—a little time out of your day. I’m not going to lie, my first impulse was to bolt when Jim started chatting me up, but then it occurred to me that sometimes others’ needs are more important than my own, and today, old Jim just needed someone to talk to. I was happy to be the one.
Just remember that doing something kind for someone else is almost always doing yourself a favor, too.
So yeah. That’s all. :)
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