Bob, The Gentleman.

Kind, gentle and helpful.

We were watering a friend's plants yesterday morning, when yet again Bob surprised me. The usual background characters were around. The birds were tweeting, the feral cats were purring, a lawnmower was given a noisy outing, some cars were doing the slow crawl down the hill ( how else does one get a hold of neighbourly news ? ) and the sun was shining, as it usually does in our neck of the woods.

There is a slightly older & health challenged lady, who lives on her own yet still likes to have a neat and beautiful garden. Each season she plants window boxes and flower beds.

Her front windows are high up and that is where Bobster did his gentlemanly thing. He was waiting at the car while I hopped about with a full watering can, when he espied three big and planted window boxes on the ground, underneath the windows.

" Honey, do you think I should put up the heavy boxes for her? "

" Rather wait until they are filled with plants. "

" No, have a look, they are ready and planted. "

That little detail had escaped me but when I looked, I saw how right he was. As he knows the lady in question, he didn't hesitate but went straight to her door, rang the bell and when she shuffled to the door, asked her if he could lift the window boxes for her.

Gosh, you should have seen her smile and beam with pleasure at Bob taking the time to consider and care about her window boxes. She was still cautioning him because those boxes were very heavy, when Bob had already plopped them all into their respective holders.

To say that it made her day, would be a bit of an understatement. Knowing that someone cares enough to help with the little things, is what life is really all about...Anyone can do the big helpful stuff, but not everyone notices the seemingly unimportant chores that need to be done.

Bob made that lady's day yesterday and I tell you what, she made Bob's day by showing how happy she was over such a little bit of effort...

Biggi