Subj: “Gentle”
Date: Sun Nov 5 19:33:02 EST 2000
Elsa whisked me out of the house today, up to Newtown for breakfast at Pat's. We got there at the tag end of their serving hours, so we were seated at once. Our regular Saturday friends were there, which was a lovely surprise. They had their son and his son and baby daughter, too.
We were seated upstairs and they were seated down, so we did not talk to them a lot. The little boy, who I peg at around 2 1/2, came upstairs (two steps up is all) and was reverently touching some china objects on a very low table. His papa came up and I was very impressed by the young man, who looked down at his son and said in a very loving voice, "Gentle."
Not, "Don't touch." Not, "Be careful." He said just that one word, "Gentle." That positive, reinforcing message went straight to my heart.
After we finished up and headed out to the car, we saw our friends helping the young father get his children into his car. After he pulled out, his dad leaned against our car, his arm thrown over the roof and a hand on the passenger’s side door handle. He sort of looked like he thought it belonged to him, so Elsa said, "It's ours." thinking theirs was similar.
Oh, they had walked, he explained, then waited for me to get to the door, opened it for me, helped me in, said "Tuck in your foot" just like John or Elsa would, even fastened my seat belt. I was touched and surprised.
Elsa gave him a big hug and one to his wife. They talked a bit, then the couple headed out to State Street and home.
When Elsa got back in the car, I mentioned how floored I was by his tenderness. "And you didn't even see him crying," she replied.
It turns out that his mother - whom he misses every day - had the same sort of car and he was showing me the tender loving car he showed her.
Our Saturday breakfast outing brought home to a simple truth: we never know what impact we are having on others by just breathing, by driving a certain car, by showing the tender loving care of a son to a mother.
It was a good day. Best wishes to you all for a good night, with special blessing to Dick for being a loving son.
xoxoxox - Mum Lockhart
reposted in sweet memory of KATHARINE REYNOLDS LOCKHART, by her scribe/daughter, Elsa Lockhart Murphy aka Deev, in celebration of the 05/14 centenary of Mum Lockhart's birth
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