Tag Archives: elders

Late Harvest

The days are getting short. The sun doesn’t feel so warm, when it shines. Weeds have grown up in the garden. Nobody cares. They won’t stop the last tomatoes from ripening.

Parts of the plants have turned brown and limp. But if you pull one up, thinking it’s dead, you might be surprised by a good-sized fruit at the end of the dry stalk. So you leave the garden looking raggedy, overgrown, with brown among the living green. There are still treasures in it.

Here and there is a small yellow flower or two. The bees know where. The sunflower bushes are swarming with bees, and some butterflies, wasps, and moths. Creatures are still finding nourishment here.

I have lost some old friends recently. One died after a long illness. One is moving to be near family, now that she needs people to check in on her. One has been hospitalized several times; she has to have another operation and she’s terrified. The oldest of all of them is doing well but worries about becoming a burden to her daughter. I’ve always been in good health, but lately, something is going on with my heart.

Are we all dry stalks, then? Or is there still some juice in these old growths?

We live through more rains, more wind and clouds, more sunshine. We hope for a late harvest.

An old friend

A friend of mine in her 80s has always been active in her community. She raised her own two kids and several others by herself in spite of never having any money to speak of. She’s a wonderful artist, an inspiring teacher, an ardent and articulate lefty, a doting grandmother. But her only surviving child and her grandchildren live far away.

Ten years ago, she was taking African dance classes and swimming across Walden Pond. Today, she can’t stand up straight. She isn’t sick but she doesn’t feel so good either. She still takes care of her old house and rents the extra rooms, so she’s eking out a living. But it’s getting hard for her to do simple things like grocery shopping.

When I spoke with her the other day, she was excited and happy. A purely accidental meeting led to a connection with local volunteers who are, she says simply, “helping each other.” This informal group started online in mid-March, when this country first began to take the pandemic seriously. Now they’re filling a few of the many needs that are not being met by either charitable organizations or government. For one thing, they’re helping her bring in the groceries.

The internet is an amazing tool. Maybe it’s the brain of our species, forming just in time. This network connects billions of us in ways never possible before. But a network of actual in-person humans is still the best thing of all.

My friend has been helping others throughout her long life. Sometimes it’s hard for such people to accept help when they need it. My friend, though, is a philosopher. She knows that kindness is its own reward. The folks who are helping her now are fortunate to do it. They are experiencing the warmth of real community.

May such kindness sustain us through these dark days: both giving, and receiving.