My mother�s tale of an unsolicited act of kindness.

I recently got off the phone with my mother, who is old and lonely, and likes to talk my ear off relating the minutiae of her life. But today she had an interesting and heart-warming story to relate. She had an appointment with the retinologist (she has macular degeneration, and her ophthamologist wanted her to see this particular specialist). The story of how she got there in the freezing cold with the various methods of transportation is part of the minutiae, so I will leave it out. But in the doctor�s office, she was greeted by an entirely Chinese staff: doctors, nurses, receptionist, etc. My mother�s hearing is not as good as it used to be either, and she said she could barely understand the nurse who put drops in her eyes. Of course, for this procedure she had to remove her contact lenses and don her cataract glasses, through which she sees imperfectly at the best of times, and with drops in her eyes, worse.

The nurse told her to come back in half an hour (or forty-five minutes, I don�t remember and it�s not important) to see the doctor, so she decided to go to the coffee shop in the building and get a snack. But she couldn�t see to find the elevator. She stumbled into another office and asked a man where the elevator was. Instead of just telling her, he took her to the elevator, accompanied her to the snack shop, sat with her while she had her coffee and talked to her. She said he was a most interesting man, a scientist of some sort who spoke at great length about his specialty, and then rode in the elevator with her upstairs and made sure she got back to her retinologist�s. However, when she entered the waiting room, she realized that she had left her cane in the coffee shop. This time she found her way downstairs on her own, entered the coffee shop, and a woman who worked there approached her and said, �Excuse me, but are you looking for your cane?� You see, there are nice, helpful people in the world who will assist old ladies, and they�re not all boyscouts either.

The weather has been warming up, if you can call -13� �warming�. There�s more moisture in the air, too, which you notice when you inhale. The dryness is very hard on the lips, hands, and nostrils. Of course, raised temperatures means more snow. It�s a trade off.

Our guest left this morning in the company of two Mexican guitarists who drove him home to Qu�bec. He is such an incredible performer, as well as a really nice man, and I hope that he comes back soon to give another concert and hopefully stay with us again.

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