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With a card of someone special
before her, she projected herself into their lives for
that moment so that the letter she wrote to them was
very special and for them alone. In a tiny date book
from 1987, probably given out free in a Hallmark card
shop at the time, penciled in, was every birthday, anniversary
and any other special occasion. The writing was small
but very neat in the date boxes of each months calendar,
so there was still room to fit more in.
Slowly and carefully,
she chose the cards and then filled in the blank spaces
on them with writing. She was busy with it until late
at night (or the early hours of the morning, depending
on how you looked at it) but also carried some "letters in progress"
with her whenever she had a free moment to herself.
Carol was always
up late. Sometimes she fell asleep in a chair and when
she woke up she might finish what she'd been working
on. She had a tendency of falling asleep where she sat
before she would go to bed. Then she might be distracted
from sleep again by something she had to finish!
When
all the cards were spread out before her, it looked
like too much. But somehow all of it got taken care
of, even though it usually meant staying up late. The
last card she wrote before bed the night before, didn't
have an address. But it would. Even if it took several days for her to get back to it.
Whether a it was a clever saying she'd recopied, a message for a family member, prescription
or appointment, the rough draft of a letter, pictures
or a new crayon or finger painting, you'd find it on
the counter or on the refrigerator, held on by small
magnets. If you were looking for something in particular,
it might be hard to find. Every bit of space on the
outside of the refrigerator was reserved. There were
about a hundred magnets up there in all different sizes
and styles. Sometimes a note overlaped another, or a
picture overlapped a note. You just had to realize that
there was much more going on there than one refrigerator
could hold.
Carol always had ten things to do before
she went somewhere and the last minute things were the
most important. It seemed that with the inevitability
of leaving came the necessity of doing those things
procrastinated. Even though it was Sunday morning and
she was late for church, the name and address she was
looking for was found scribbled on the back of an Acme
cash register receipt. It was transferred quickly to
the stamped envelope, stuck into her pocketbook and
rushed out to the car!
Carol was also the last one to
church, for she always had boxes, or bags, of arts and
crafts with her that she had been working on during
the week for the children to do in Sunday School. You
always knew that she was trying very hard not to be
late, but there were just were too many last minute
things she had to do before leaving. She'd herself said
that she was not a procrastinator, although this wasn't
the typical case of procrastination with the amount
of things she had on her list to do. During church she
would sit in the empty seat beside Norm until she was
needed in other places like helping out with child care
in the nursery and Sunday school classes. As Superintendent
of Sunday school, she was known by all the children
in church and was highly regarded. She would spend a
lot of time preparing lessons and making sure the teachers
had everything they needed for their classes. She also
passed around small containers to collect money to help
the poor overseas and then made certain that the full
amount collected was mailed to where it was intentended.
. During worship, friendship pads were passed around
to see who was there. If new people signed in, then
someone from the Evangelism and Membership Committee
would go visit them that same day or the day after and
bring them some homemade bread.
Carol would frequently
deliver the bread and greeting herself. Then if they
had time, she would talk to the new visitors about the
church and answer any questions they might have. She
would also make a note of members who had not been to
church for a while and let the pastor know. Often she would call on them herself to see if they were okay
and to let them know how much they were missed. She'd
visit Mary Flockhart or one of the other older members
who couldn't make it out that Sunday. She would take
them flowers, church bulletins, and tapes of the Sunday
service Long after everyone else had left the church,
she would go around to check everything and make sure
all was secure. Often, although church would end at
11:00, Carol wouldn't get home until 2:00 pm. On the
way home she stopped at a mailbox, remembering the story
behind why the name and address had been written on
a cash register receipt.
A famous story about her was about the time she'd needed a few groceries
at Acme. She got them and got behind another woman at
checkout. But someone pushed in right behind her seconds
later and flashed Carol a hostile stare. Her expression
was like hardened steel, when Carol smiled at her. She
must have been a few seconds behind Carol and had the
lane in her sights without Carol in it. She didn't need
to say anything. The eyes said enough, Although the
message most would have gotten, was "don't talk to me!",
Carol got a different one. As they both stood there
waiting through the tedious process of adding the grocery
items from a rather full cart being checked out, Carol
was about to do a simple kindness for a stranger. The
kind gesture might have been a small thing but it took
on added meaning with the bright and encouraging smile
that Carol gave the stranger as she said: "It's alright,
you can go in front of me." The stranger looked at Carol
with such disbelief that it could have made a Candid
Camera episode. She was taken aback and stammered as
she tried to thank Carol. "A-are you s-sure it's okay?
" "Yes, I insist," said Carol. With the stranger in
front of her, unloading her groceries first onto the
conveyor, Carol waited quietly. After a long minute
the woman turned, somewhat embarressed. "I appreciate
this. What's your name?" Carol gave hers and asked the
womans. The woman thanked her again after her groceries
had been rung up and then said: "I'd like to talk to
you again. If you want, call me. " And she wrote her
name on a cash-register receipt. Her name was Diane
Levitt. Yes, she was that Levitt Her husband Herbie
was in the First Aid Squad but didn't socialize. He
raised dobermans and didn't make any friends in his
car repair business either. Every night she'd come home
and listened to his tirade about politics, the war and
foreign cars. They rarely spoke for any other reason
unless he was barking orders at her. This shopping trip
had been his idea, he written a shopping list and he'd
wanted it filled quickly. They talked on the phone.
Diane had never been so glad to hear from someone. They
talked for about an hour, long enough for both of them
to learn a good deal of things about each other. Both
husbands were in the first aid squad and knew each other
in a confrontational kind of a way. Diane knew some
of the same people Carol did, liked Joyces delicious
subs, all covered in diced sweet peppers.
It was the
same with Delicious Orchards, thick fresh cider, and
apple cakes, donuts and pies were a highly regarded
commodity. There was also Laurinos farm stand the Seschwan
dumpling salad, available at a little restaurant across
from Walter Reade's old Carlton Theater , homemade egg
custard, or chocolate wafers and whipped cream in an
ice-box cake. They only quit at the shout of a man on
Diane's side of the line. The day that Carol had let a particular stranger in front of her was a special
moment indeed. It was the day that a stranger was on
her way to becoming a friend. Diane had started to feel
like a stranger from herself. Her discouragement took
the form of being pushy with strangers who she assumed
would simply return her rude gestures. Carol hadn't
and by doing the unpredictable, she had instantly broken
that bad habit. At the same time, she had also gotten
someone interested in attending the small church that
Carol was so active in. This small kindness started
a long association with a good lady who went on to became
one of the most familiar long term members the church
had ever had and it all started with that kindness.
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