Yesterday, I met Mum for a cuppa ‘n chat at The Fantastic Plastic Cafe. She’s seriously super – my Mum. There’s the halo of white curls framing twinkly blue eyes, dimpled smile and a wicked sense of humour, combined with a generous heart. So Mum, flushed with excitement, plops breathless into her usual chair in the bay window, opposite me. “Got a story for your blog,” she promptly announced. I order coffees, get comfy and listen-up. Turns out Mum’s neighbour, Peter, has a red heeler Australian brindle cattle dog – “Oscar”. He’s 15 years young, skinny as and slow as a snail chomping his way through an entire lettuce patch. But Oscar still has the breed’s tough, intelligent glint in his eye.
Peter’s a waiter and works the night shift. He brings cartons of gourmet food home, sharing much of it with neighbours (great idea) and Oscar (not such a great idea). Even though Peter only recently mentioned to Mum he wished that he could afford to buy the premium dog-nosh – Eukanuba and Science Diet, he admitted he just can’t afford it. His weekly wage just doesn’t stretch that far. Leastways, this morning, Mum arrived home after shop-up at Harris Farms and Peter met her in the hallway. Excited, he profusely thanked her for the Eukanuba and Science Diet dog food (Mum has a kelpie-x, Ebony) kindly left in his hallway. What happened was that Peter had stepped into the garden with Oscar and left his front door slightly ajar. Returning 5 minutes later, he found a large packet of Eukanuba and 2 large packets of Science Diet near the kitchen entry, inside his apartment (worth around A$95 in total). Here’s the thing – Mum didn’t gift the dog food to him, nor did any other neighbour Peter has so far tracked-down. Mum just beams with pleasure at these slice-of-life stories reflecting random kindness. cheers catchul8r molly
wow your mom sounds a wonderful person. I really like your blog:)
Great story about Mum’s neighbour Peter. They have been crocheting plastic bags in South Africa for some years now. I remember one of the more intricate ones, the multi-coloured sun hats. Dawn “Amarula”