My young friend was willing but I was terrified to let her come into the house to help me clean. I'm sure she's taking care, but I'm not there every minute to be sure. She's found work at Door Dash and Instacart so she's in and out of places all day long. No one can tell me for sure how long the virus lasts on surfaces or in the air; I haven't had her touching the bed or the laundry in weeks.
But we want to pay her and she wants to work, so, today, she took everything out of the garage and washed the floor to within an inch of its life. Then she put everything back where it started out. Our cars are still in the driveway; it's too pretty to move them onto that floor.
And then, because there was still time owed, she took my list and my credit card, and JannyLou's list and some cash, and went to Whole Foods for us. An experienced quarantine shopper, she outfitted herself in gloves and mask. She consulted with the worker bees to determine the best time to shop (turns out the morning is the worst; they get restocked after lunch and have holes on the shelves early in the day) and is now set up to do our meat and produce shopping on a regular basis.
She'd never been in Whole Foods before. She says she's never going to shop anywhere else from now on. It smells so good in there.
I'm trying to quell my jealousy over her ability to walk through the fruits and vegetables. Instead, I'm focusing on the little things that have brought me joy today - a clean garage and fresh groceries, the result of a delightful young woman whose eagerness to help is matched by the gleam of the sun on her braces as she smiles.
One word for this-- wow.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a village. We've helped her (see comment to Allison below) and now she's helping us. It's wonderful to have a different voice around!
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I too like the smell in Whole Foods. If we lived in the same town, I'd shop for you when I do my shopping. Interesting about the timing, though, as I always go early in the morning and find the shelves being stocked as I go through the store, especially the produce section. The produce people are so nice as to bag the items I pick out if they are stocking at the time.
ReplyDeleteI do miss walking through the store..... I wish we lived in the same town for SO MANY MANY MANY reasons!
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I want to know when anyone is stocking toilet paper! Fry's and Safeway have it in Vail, which is 25 miles from here, but there's none around my area. My palms are starting to sweat, that would be the palms of my hands, not the trees. How lovely it is to have a clean garage floor. Ours needs a little attention.
ReplyDeleteSIR got some in the grocery store in Indiana yesterday- he felt like he hit the jackpot! They were down to 4 rolls!!!!
DeleteI'm sure my friend would come to you and do your garage too!
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This is a heart warming post.
ReplyDeleteWe are SO lucky to have her in our lives. Her mom was deported; JannyLou and Fast Eddie and TBG and I are trying to fill the hole left behind. She's 19 and has lived dark for 5 years.... it's a steep learning curve, but she's having such a good time learning to be a grown up on her own and we are loving watching her blossom.It's nice that she can do for us now, as we have been doing for her for a while.
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That just hurts my heart that her mom was deported.
DeleteDon't get me started......I promised to lay down in front of the bus and refuse to let them take her..... she was gone 45 mins after I got the call... before I could get to INS. Heartbreaking.
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