The Glass Basket

The phone rang this morning at 9:00 am. I was just getting out of bed when Stace answered it (she had been up for a while of course).

I heard Stace comment, "When he's had his eyes open for awhile, he'll come over and do that for you." These are EXACTLY the words I love to hear when I first get up on a Saturday morning.

However, this was Lillian. The little old lady next door was calling to see if I could come over and dig up some bulbs before they freeze. Of course I would gladly do it!

It was actually important to me to do this. For those of you who don't know, in May I had just pulled into my driveway when I noticed Lillian was on the ground in front of her house. She had fallen and broken her hip. I called 911 and stayed with her until the ambulance took her away. She made a full recovery, but she can't leave the house alone now.

I went over and she handed me a pitch fork. She directed me from her open garage door as to the location of her gladiolus and such. "There are 2 bulbs in the center of that planter by the driveway. Now this planter here around the corner has 3 bulbs in it." I dug them out carefully and handed them to her. I was amazed really. She put these in this spring. There were several types of bulbs, each in different locations.

Did I mention she is almost completely blind?

We chatted about how she will store these bulbs in the basement until they are ready to go back in the planters in the spring. She then handed me some garden pepper spray, ".....so you don't have to chase those darn squirrels around your yard no more." I laughed and thanked her.

She said she had a wedding gift for us and invited me in. "It's there on the table. It's not wrapped nice or anything." she said. It was a basket shaped glass bowl. "This was given to me as a wedding gift. So it's 60 years old now." I said, "Oh, Lillian this is so nice. You don't have to give us this." "WHY?" she yelled. "Well, I mean are you sure you want to part with it?" I said. She smiled, "I want you to have something to remember me by." She could not tell how touched I was.

She continued, "And there is something else there, right? A certificate or something?" I picked up the folded paper in the basket and looked at it. It was a $20 gift certificate for Rueb 'n' Stein bar and grille. Stace and I go there often.

"Thank you, thank you. This is so sweet. This basket is beautiful. And Stace and I love Rueb 'n' Stein." I said.

"OOOOh, their burgers are great, ya know?" she said.