Today is my birthday.  Having a birthday in June is usually pretty pleasant.  I can’t remember the last time the sun didn’t shine on my birthday.  I woke up knowing that even though this was my day I would spend most of it helping out my parents.  My mom is suffering from joint damage in her foot due to her diabetes and my dad has severe dementia and is confined to a wheelchair.  Now, with my mom in a leg cast times are hard for them.  I have become their connection to the outside world until this cast on my mom’s leg is removed and she can drive again.  So I set out this rainy morning to their house to pick up her grocery list.

 

If I am honest with myself, I would admit that there are a multitude of other things I would rather be doing on my birthday.  But you know,  this day 48 years ago she did more work to get me here than I did so why not, right?

 

By the time I got to the Shoprite it was pouring and there was no sense in waiting, it seemed like it would go on forever.  So out of my car I dash to the metal cage area in the parking lot that houses the wagons.  When I got there I instantly realized that you need a quarter to detach the wagons from their chains insuring that you return it to get your quarter back.  Frantically I searched for a quarter knowing that I most likely wouldn’t’ find one because I had given every last quarter I had to my daughter before she got on the bus only hours ago.  Nonetheless I kept looking.

 

Out of the corning of my eye I see an old man crossing the parking lot with an empty wagon.  I noticed him because he reminded me of my father.  He was wearing a quilted flannel jacket and a blue baseball cap that covered most of his white gray hair.  As he got closer he appeared to be about the same age – mid eighties or so.  He shuffled just like my dad used to before the dementia make walking impossible.  Still digging through my purse I watched him walk past caged carts and minivans.  I began to get the impression he was heading for me.

 

Slowly he shuffled across the lane I was standing in.  Soon, he was met by a small white sedan, driven by a grey-haired woman.  

 

“Did you forget something?”  He leaned over, meeting my eyes with his from beneath his #1 Grandfather cap.

 

“Yes, I don’t usually shop here and I forgot all about the quarters”.

 

“Take my cart.”  He said.

 

“Oh, well,  let me find a quarter for you.  I must have one” I responded continuing to search through my purse. All the while, I was in disbelief that this elderly man had crossed an entire parking lot in the pouring rain to give me his cart.

 

“No.  Don’t worry about it honey.  You’ll pay me back some day.”  With that he got in the white sedan with his lady and she drove away.

 

He made me cry.  I don’t know why.  Perhaps because I couldn’t imagine how I could ever pay him back.

 

When my daughter came home from school I told her the story and she said to me, “Mom, I don’t think he meant the quarter.”

 

“Me neither,” I replied.