Thursday, July 01, 2010

WHEN TWO SOULS MEET


The other day I stopped by my Mother’s house to talk to her friend. Henry is a man in his early to mid eighty’s, and has never married, but visits Mom every day. As you know, Mom is 92 years of age, and is still very sharp, and can still laugh, move and do for herself. It never occurs to her that 92 is old, instead she sees herself as she did 75 years ago! Her children are worried about her, since we are for the most part in our sixties.

But we are also worried about Henry. A man in his eighties should be having it easy in his twilight years, yet he has a devotion to friendship, my Mom’s. He comes daily, helps her get her house in order, does a few chores and goes to his own home then later in the afternoon, returns and together they cook dinner. He loves Mom’s food and buys all the groceries so she will make what he likes.

There is no other thing there but a friendship. They share a lot of things in common, yet are so different in so many ways.

As we talked about the concerns of my sisters and I, I couldn’t help but notice how enthusiastic he was to talk about Mom, about her health, and her sharp mental alertness, that would put her son to shame! He marvels at how easy she is to get along with, how she makes him happy as well as how he makes her happy. There is a genuine sweetness in his voice when he discusses her.

Life is sometimes cruel, and sometimes just wonderful. To these two people, it is wonderful. It is what God intended us to have, a companionship based of trust and mutual respect.

3 comments:

Jim Pantaleno said...

You Mom looks amazing for 92. It's nice that she found someone to share her interests with. If you have her genes you should be blogging for another 30 years. See you soon.

Anonymous said...

What on earth would your friend Jim Pantaleno think you would be doing with your mom's jeans? Surely, you have your own, don't you????
ss-i-l

Joseph Del Broccolo said...

no, I wear Mom's