I ambled down to my neighbors house this morning, past the bee boxes and cold bees huddled together to stay warm. It is cold and dark today. Rune was with me and wound up. I threw the frisbee a few times to calm him down.
My neighbors are in their 80's, the woman english, the husband Italian. She reminds me of a modern version of Tweety Bird's mother. ...I have known them since I moved here. We have spent hours and hours sitting in chairs on their lovely lawn in the sun talking about all kinds of stuff. I adore them both...they are like my grand parents, but they care about me...She is always checking in on me.
When Covid was amongst us, I did all of their shopping...I learned so much and for me, I love a good scavenger hunt. I learned that the top of a milk carton tells you what kind of milk it is...( they blue, I prefer red)...I learned all about chocolate and percentages...He likes 99%, She likes 78, I am at 90 now. I learned so many thing.
They have been married a long time ...I still need to see their photos!and have lived an interesting life. They have a 40 something adopted daughter.
The husband grew up, as a small child, in Tuscany...deep in the hills in an area I know pretty well. During WW2, his family had to escape from the village into the mountains. It was traumatic for him and he still carries the scars from it. He survived cancer a few years ago and is better now, but frail.
I adore them both. We speak about 90% french....he does not speak english...( although she is english)...she does not speak Italian...they speak French only together. I think it is necessary for me to only speak french in this circumstance. I think it is rude not to.
Anyway, I could tell he was happy to see when when he came out after I rung the bell. We have a love of Italy that gives us a tie. He was happy to see Rune. I hadn't been there in awhile. He unlocked the gate to let us in. I told him, I need to be very careful of A, the wife, with Rune as she is very fragile and walks with a cane.
He set out plastic chairs on the lawn to sit in the sun. She came out and I guarded her from Rune as he was running around like crazy. They have a huge lawn and he loves to play there. They sat down. I tried to calm Rune down but he just kept getting crazier and running in a tear around the yard.
Suddenly, he came running in our direction, couldn't stop and decided to fly right over the top of the man. I think we were all in shock, He might have touched/hit the man a little as he flew past over his head, but the man jerked his head away and I think strained his neck. I saw it happen but it was so fast there is no way to know exactly what transpired..
My poor friend was very shook up. A and I ran to him. He was holding his head and crying...He didn't have a cut, I thought he had a head wound. I think he was shocked ( as were we!) and he had jerked his neck. I stayed with him with my hands around his head while she went and got some water...oh it was awful! A was holding on to him, shaking, trying to sooth him.
He wanted to get up. I was so afraid he might pass out. I put my arms around him and just held him still for a minute or 2...just to make sure he was steady. I din't want to let him go. He went into his den and laid on his recliner...He was still shut down, crying, upset. We situated him with ice and let him rest.
A and I started talking of other things...about 30 minutes later, we were all laughing about ski stories and other misadventures. He was better, he joined in....I checked in on him a few minutes ago and he is ok....
All I could think of is that I injured ( Rune, anyway) this poor man that the wife so depends upon...oh the ramifications...I also empathized with the frustration of it all...trying so hard to be careful yet life throws you a curve ball and then you are in pain again....the human body, so fragile. The last thing I wanted to do was to cause them pain.
He seems ok now...he was going to the Dr. this evening anyway so will be checked out...now he has a story to tell.
It's funny how the thought of hurting him connects to my friend Noulin that passed almost a year ago and whose bedside I sat next to in his last days, to my father in his fragile state, to a grandfather that was bedridden for many years. I had love for them all and hurting one is hurting them all. I had a secret cry about this when I got home.
Funny how empathy works. The well can be very deep at times.
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