Unexpectedly.

[tedwords]

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Lately, Corb's mom has been a bit down in the dumps, which is completely understandable, what with Jim's passing and the stress of having to figure out where she is going to live. The pressure felt from Jim's children and Scott and Tina to move out sooner rather than later, cannot make this an easy time in her life.

One of the silver linings is that she has developed a friendship with a lady who lives next door to her. Her name is Ginny and she is about Diana's age, and they have had similar experiences. She is also divorced and her husband was also abusive. Lately they have been doing a lot of activities together, including walking around five miles every day.

But I guess it can't take the place completely of family, and Corb noticed that when she went to visit him at his space at Shiplap on Friday, there was a note of sadness in her voice as they were discussing the week-end. 

"She wasn't really happy that we didn't go out to dinner with her Wednesday night, and when I was walking to my car that night, she was still parked in the parking lot and didn't realize I was near her. And she had this look of...I don't know...she looked really tired and sad. It was like she had been putting on an act of happiness but I was kind of seeing what she felt when the mask was taken off. Ted, we realy need to do something with her this weekend. 

So this morning, we arranged to meet her for breakfast. She asked if Ginny could come along, and she turned out to be a lovely woman. After breakfast, we decided to go to the Wrentham Artisan Market with the two ladies.

It wasn't a great selection. A lot of 3-D printer made woodwork and artistry, and some things straight out of Home Goods. But we did happen by a booth called Wading River Stitchery, and Corb's mom fell in love with one of the pocketbook there. It was a really cool bag with an animal theme: a cheetah and elephant on the outside, with a giraffe in the interior. Corb's mom kept oohing and ahhing over it and mentioned it constantly as we visited the other booths.

"I have to get that for her," Corb said, as we started to wind our way toward the end of the booths. 

"Let's do it." Carefully, we started to creep away from his mom and her friend, and made our way back to the booth, keeping a careful eye to make sure that we weren't being observed.  

It took us a while, as the owner had to boot up her credit card device, and there was one more I swear Diana spotted what we were up to, but 10 minutes later we were done, and Corb started planning how to surprise her with it.

However, the minute we reached the last booth, Diana turned around with a determined look on her face. "I have to get that bag," she said, and headed back toward Wading River. 

"This should be interesting," I whispered to Corb as we followed her. Sure enough, when we arrived back at the book, she had a dejected look on her face.

"It's been sold," she said, shaking her head.

"Well, what did it look like?" Corb asked. "Maybe we can try to look around for something similar."

"Oh, maybe," she said, rather skeptically. "It had an elephant on the front and..."

Corb reached into the back he was holding and lifted up the purse for her to see. "Like this?" 

From the look on her face, I think Corb earned a few good son points today. His mom gave him a big hug and started laughing, and the vendor was so moved she actually started to tear up. 

I know, it's only temporary. It doesn't resolve the larger underlying issue (which I swear should be a Golden Girl like solution--why not move in with a friend like Ginny and keep each other company?) 

Still, a little bit of kindness and one or two unexpected surprises can certainly go a long way to make the short term a bit brighter and more colorful. Like an elephant's memory, that hand-stitched creation may linger longer than just the thrill of the moment.