Make a Senior Citizen Friend like Miss Emma
Posted: Tuesday, July 24, 2007
by Kathy Danner
PB and JAHM
If you are moving this Summer or have a new neighbor that just moved in, please consider reaching out to them even if they seem outside your usual comfort zone. If you don’t you might miss the blessing. Here is how I met Miss Emma.
Make a Senior Citizen friend like Miss Emma
Having just moved from out-of-state, I yearned for a friend. The move from my sunny home in Atlanta to our new gray-skied home in New Jersey left me very overwhelmed and depressed. I couldn’t wait until my prayers would be answered and I might have a new friend to visit with and hold my hand through the rigors of finding everything all over again.
She said in a wavery voice, “Hello, I don’t usually do this, but I just wanted to stop by and tell you that I really like what you are doing with your flower bed. And, I have some more of those plain green hostas so you can finish." I was speechless. First of all, I thought I was finished! Secondly, I thought that my hostas were anything but plain. However, I realized by the helpful look on her face, she was not trying to insult me. I squeaked out a reply of, “Oh thank you. I would love some more plain, I mean green hostas."
I followed up and went to her house to pick up the hostas, which indeed improved my landscaping efforts. We had a wonderful day and found out that we had an amazing number of things in common other than digging in the dirt. Emma was also a fanatic coupon clipper, an accomplished seamstress, and loved to paint. Emma and I became fast buddies.
She showed me all her discount shopping haunts. The three of us were kind of a cross-generational motley crew, poking around the autumnal flea markets; my two-year-old son on my hip wearing his favorite pinkish faded fireman hat, me in my summery Atlanta sundress, and our new Octogenarian friend bundled in her more sensible attire. We bagged free mulch at the county tree-chipping depot, frequented the Hostess Bread outlet (on Thursday for Senior Citizen Discount Day), and diligently coupon shopped on triple coupon days at the grocery stores.
One morning on one of our outings, we were on the way to a nursery sale (the plant kind) when she told me I had been an answer to prayer for her the day she came to my door. She had been extremely depressed and had prayed for God to give her some hope and a new friend. I was fighting back the tears when she confided this to me. It became clear for the first time. She was also my answer to prayer.
I had expected God to send me a friend just like the ones I had made in Atlanta . Friends in my same demographic: early thirties, married, recent mommy, college educated, and hopelessly frugal. Emma met only the last of those criteria, yet she is one of the best friends I have ever had. Though Emma is not a mother, she has shown my son and me more love and compassion than many women who are mothers and grandmothers.
Emma has shown me how God answers prayer within His will, which is not always our will. I am glad that God answered both our prayers and in such a surprising way. She has caused me to reach out beyond my prior comfort zone and to know people for the living spirit within them.
Kathy Kline Danner
© 2007
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