Even a visit to the optician is exciting to me, because I always expect something good to happen each day
my cup is always half-full
Wednesdays are always nice for some reason. It depends on how you look at things. Is your glass always half-full or half-empty? Mine is half -full. So even though I had to go to San Antonio to the eye doctor and this time I was driving my self, after cataract surgery a week ago, and I was kinda nervous, I decided it was going to be a great day. As I drove up 181 North, I prayed to have a lovely drive, with no traffic and that if God had someone He wanted me to talk to, I would be open and aware of the person. I expected a very good day, and it was!
Well, the drive was awesome, lots of sunshine and I could see all the wildflowers on the side of the road and in the fields adjacent to me, and before I knew it I was at the place, and walking into the building!
I signed in, and saw the waiting room was crowded, found a seat, and a magazine and started to read. After about 20 minutes, a lady sat beside me. She was Hispanic, and attractive and smiled at me as she sat down, I saw that she was working a crossword puzzle.
I said to her, “I love crossword puzzles too. I work them all the time”.
We started talking after that and I found out she was a very interesting lady. She lived by herself in a house she inherited from a relative. The house is on S. Presa close to the center of downtown. I know that area, it is in an old part of San Antonio. I bet the house is 100 years old. She was about my age, 78, and she said she usually takes the VIA bus to appointments and such, but the driver didn’t wait for her that morning so she had to drive herself to the doctor.
She was so interesting and an amazing woman. What was so interesting to me was she was an aircraft mechanic when she was young. She was born and raised in Corpus Christi and when she graduated from high school, she went to Wichita, Kansas where her brother lived to find a job. She got a job at Boeing Aircraft as a mechanic! That was in the early 50’s and women were not hired very often to be mechanics. Men had those jobs. But she became an expert aircraft mechanic! Then she married her boss!
After a few years they came to San Antonio and went to work at an aircraft plant here. I can’t remember the name. She was only one of two women aircraft mechanics! She said she loved the work. She and her husband worked there till they retired. They raised four children and all went to college and are scattered over the USA with good jobs. One daughter lives in San Antonio. She said her daughter wanted her to come live with her. She said she would rather live by herself, because she is headstrong and her daughter is just like her! She said they would surely butt heads.
I don’t even remember her name, but she was a joy, one of those fiercely independent, strong Texas women I meet all the time in South Texas.
Later as we sat there talking, she asking me where I lived and if I lived alone too, we became good friends as I helped her with the crossword puzzle. She stated she didn’t get lonesome, because she keeps busy, crocheting and working crossword puzzles.
Then suddenly after a moment of silence she turned to me asked, “Are you a reporter?”
I laughed and said, “No. Why do you ask?”
She said, “Well you ask questions like a reporter”.
Oh dear Lord, I thought, I need to stop being so nosey! So said, “I am sorry, but I love people and I love to hear their stories. I do write a column for the Wilson County News. But I am not a reporter! I guess I am sort of a storyteller. Maybe I will write about your story some day.”
She laughed, “ I don’t think my story is interesting”.
What is puzzling to me, is why God put this woman in my path the day after He put the church secretary in my path at the Methodist church, and both women were born and raised in Corpus Christi and were fiercely independent, strong, no-nonsense, friendly, talkative, and attractive.
And both had made something with their lives and had led interesting lives. What is God trying to show me?
I am sure I will get the answer soon. That is too much of a coincidence…or “God-incidence”?
And that was early in the morning, and the day was not over, because I had an interesting visit to a Mexican food restaurant on the way home. My cup was running over!
It looks like having your cataracts removed has given you new vision! I, like you, perhaps because we are writers, enjoy hearing other people's stories and relating them like I often do here. Like the story of a nurse told me that she was going to marry the grand nephew of Mme. Chiang Kai-shek here in Houston. His mother is a former movie star who married his father, a multibillionaire oilman. I wrote her story to post here… But she told me not to do it.
When you related to her relationship with her daughter, I thought of my mother 92 in assisted living and my sister and their love/hate struggle as my mother's medical problems like cataracts removed and carpal tunnel syndrome surgery, multiply. The rest of us are scattered all around the country and can't be there to help my sister out.
When I'm in waiting rooms I tend to interrupt people reading magazines, on their cell phones, or doing crossword puzzles. It's amazing how they open up and start to talk about their lives.
Kudos on your driving! Mom drove until she was 88. When she got pulled over on a lonely highway for driving too slow, she decided to hang it up and sell her car.
Rosetta was born in 1909 as the youngest of ten children. The family had more laughter than money and neighbors would knock on their door to ask, "Can we come in and laugh, too?"
Inside the Methadone Clinic. Addiction to heroin, methadone, and other opiates. Destruction. The primal addiction" of the child, power and control over your own life, the institutions and the characters, the love between a mother and son. This book i
