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Warm Tea

Right after Christmas in 2004, I was making a big move halfway across the country with my parents and J. What little stuff I had was packed in boxes and shipped with UPS to my employer's office. They would forward the boxes on once I had found my apartment. J's belongings were all in the trunk of my car and we we had enough supplies to survive the first few days in an empty apartment until my boxes arrived. I can't recall how mattresses had fit into car but somehow we must have done that so there would be something to sleep on. The boxes did arrive in a few days and we were able to make a home out of the apartment. This was before I started writing this blog so I have no specific accounting of those days. J had not fussed during the long road-trip. She napped through the most of it. We stopped by for meals at local restaurants along the way and that was a bit of entertainment. There was a lot of snow all the way until our destination.

A memory that I recalled over the holidays was meeting a neighbor right before we left - she had heard me coughing a lot and knew I had a move coming up. She invited me over to give me a couple of herbal remedies that had worked well for her and a calendar for the new year wishing me joy and prosperity in what would be my new home.  Something about that gesture made me sad to leave though I had looked forward to this move and was even excited for it. That sense of losing someone who cared enough even though they were neighbors in an apartment - they were looking to buy a home so they would move out in a few months anyway. The transience of the relationship made it feel special. 

We had met each other in the passing, established a warm connection and would miss each other. I wondered how long before we would fade from each other's memory. It's twenty years and I still remember that gesture. I lost touch with her a long time ago but like to believe wherever they are, they are well. They likely have kids who are just a few years younger than J and they know their mother to be a person who cares about others, even relative strangers and does what good she can do for them.

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