The Giver

     

” copyright © 2010-2014 OldTrailer.com retrieved 08/15/2014 Via Pinterest.  

      “Baahaahaahaa,” came out of me as I saw the above trailer coming down the street into our park. I laughed and thought, “Wait until my mom sees this.” My mom?   Wait till the residents in the park see this.

True to my prediction my mother gave birth to a fit, as it was actually parked just 3 mobile lots down from our cute little well maintained summer home, with manicured plantings, and various palms strategically positioned. I looked at my mother in the street with her arms crossed and a look of disgust on her face. I opened the door and laughed again.  “I do not think that is funny.” She said.   I said, “Yes it is, it could not be more awful, it’s comical.” Her face softened and she said,” there is probably some old lady that is as nice as can be living in it too.” (That was the pot calling the kettle black,)

     The neighbor adjacent who lost her parking space and overflow storage with the introduction of the new resident came out to gossip, “I’m leaving! First the landscapers cut the vines on my pumpkins in my garden with the weed eater and now this!” My mom smiles and says, “well officially with the addition of this trailer we are no longer bound to our leases.  So you’re free. “

    

I can see it parked right out my bedroom window.  I dubbed it the Nautilus, an advanced fictional Submarine out of a novel by Jules Vern,
“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.” There it was come to life on dry land, in all its rust and algae. 

We did not meet the owner immediately as it took her a few days to arrive.  Mom was out walking her dogs when she sort of met our new neighbor. I would pass and look at the curtainless windows, her car that was wrecked in the back, the tail lamp duct taped.

Then one day we met her, Mom said, “This is Diane, and Diane lives in the silver trailer down on the left.”  My mother all smiles. 

The giver had come into our lives…  And I had thought we were generous people!

 This woman started giving things to us almost immediately. The first time she came to the door, on a stormy night saying, “no one should have to cook on such a stormy night.” In her hands a bag full of TV dinners.   I love TV dinners! Only wish I had a TV.

  Since, we have become the recipients of the Sunday paper, A box of Oatmeal cookies, Yum, =), she and my mom went back and forth with bottles of pop they did not like or could not drink fast enough for a while, and a food processor! (No microwave yet.  We need a microwave.)    

We gave her a recliner from our living room when we bought a new chair and footstool I could relax in and watch the TV I do not have. 

Yesterday, I took her an ear of corn and in return I got a box of dog biscuits.    I then gave her a bag of clothing and a new purse.  The she came with some fish her friend had just caught.  It was delicious!

Often, I have heard my mom tell her that she doesn’t have to give to us in return.  But I like it =) its fun!

As we deliver our gifts back and forth or she passes our place in her car, i have dubbed Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang,

We talk.  Her life has been so sad that it has made me feel guilty for laughing at her Spartan Mansion.  I see her come and go to her job as a deli worker, her car announcing its presence with a familiar chug, chug as she passes our house.  She takes me to the local charity and we stand waiting in line, baking together, our clothing becoming parts of our bodies as we melt in the tropical Florida sun. 

She always speaks of her brother and niece and nephew she has not seen in years. She says,” it’s been at least 20 years since I saw my brother at mom’s funeral.”  She says this and sadly hangs her head.   She always ends the conversation by saying that her brother probably doesn’t even know her husband John had passed away.   

While she was visiting and we were barbequing, mom suggested we see if we could find her family on the computer. Mom told her the story of another person we had found his relatives for him and he had contacted them and reconnected.   I told them that it probably would cost something, as there is no such thing as the white pages except at the library.  Nothing is free anymore.    

But I knew that I could at least get an address. Yet, I could find nothing without paying for a people search.   And even that information was sparse. Sadly we found her brother had passed away some 14 years ago.  

I kick myself now because she was sitting there as I found the information and I blurted out, “and he has died in 1999.” I was reading a line on the screen.  Silence ensued, shock I suppose but no tears.  I apologized and she went on and on thanking me for doing that. 

I was able to get the addresses of her nieces and nephew and she has since written to them. I hope they write back and make a long lost auntie very happy. 

I was hoping to get the maximum out of the service that night thinking I would make a stink the next day and get my money back. But found to my own shock that a friend of mine had also died.  He was my best friend for a time in my life that was pretty unhappy and tumultuous.  Our friendship took my attention off of my troubled circumstances.  Diane and I both spent a sleepless night, thinking of our past and the special people that had gone before us into the great beyond. 

The before photo of the Spartan Mansion and the after photo are a sort of imagining how things could be.  Diane has a gem, a collector’s item, and with some work she could have a really nice home. I see myself out there helping her to polish the aluminum to a glossy mirror finish.  However, the only reflections on her trailer are in my mind.

But for now Diane is satisfied with her new recliner that we put just inside the door, Chitty Chitty Bang, Bang, and making the lives of her neighbors just a little bit nicer by her generosity.  

” copyright © 2010-2014 OldTrailer.com retrieved 08/15/2014 Via Pinterest.