The Forgotten

One thing I love about my husband is that he has such compassion and love for elderly people. Being a Realtor in Hendersonville, he works with mostly retirees and he is SO good at it. I am constantly marveling at his attentiveness and his gentle care with them.

An example is that he had this one client, a little old lady who lived by herself. Noah tried to sell her house for a long time but was very patient with her and the market. He would go check on her every week unrelated to business. He would listen for hours to her talk about her grandchildren or stories of her life and he would be doing it because he CARED not because he was going to make a lot of money from her. I think when she finally sold, he made only like 1,500 and that was spread out over more than a year. Anyhow, that was a ROUGH year for us financially. He had just started real estate, I was in school, he was driving 2 hours one way to commute. It was rough. It was Christmas time and we were making a budget for Christmas presents for our families. Since I have a HUGE family, this was a big deal. We decided to spend $3 on each sibling and $5 on each parent. I love a challenge and found wonderful things for each person, but after a lot of work. Noah approached me and told me that he wanted to buy his client (the little old lady) something for Christmas because he was scared she wouldn't get anything for anyone else. I was selfish and stated that we could barely buy our family Christmas presents. He said he want to buy her something nice anyhow. I was so mad, here I was trying to make ends meet and find perfect $5 presents for our parents, and he wanted to buy some random lady something that costs more than our parents?
God did melt my ice heart and I saw the beauty that was Noah's heart and we went to Ross and picked out a beautiful soft blanket for her in a cream white. Noah thought that she would love it since she spent a lot of time in her easy chair.
I didn't have the pleasure of seeing her face when he gave it to her, but I have a good imagination.
I think about that pretty much every week and am so thankful for a sweet husband who cares so much.

This leads to my weekend stories. Friday I was exhausted after driving to Charlotte for my friend's bridal shower alone with Barclay. I got home and all our "plans" were falling through. I was too tired to care. Then I get a call from Noah who wants me to gather the baby up and come to a dinner party with one of his clients and some friends. These were not peers, these were 3 70/80 year olds who were getting together. I did not want to go. I was tired, I didn't want to leave my house, I wanted to get in my PJs and crash. But I could tell it would mean the world if I did go, so off I went with Barcaly, his bumbo, his blanket, some toys, etc.

I arrived to a lively house full of complete warmth. Noah's client Michael is quite the character. He lives in Hendersonville and walks everywhere because he doesn't own a car. Not because he can't afford one, or because he can't drive one, but because he likes to walk. Every day he walks to Picasso in down town and has a coffee and croissant. He's writing a novel, is an avid reader, lived in Spain for about 10 years, has had multiple wives, and is very into full out china, crystal, cloth napkin, wine and no water, dinner parties. He loves Noah and Noah loves him. They spend about 10 hours a month "looking for houses" but they don't seem to be in a rush because I think they mostly enjoy eachother's company. He was there with two lady friends Joyce and Dot. Joyce was hillarious and was constantly talking about men and how much she loved them. She was so lively and it was her beautiful home that we were dining in. Dot was precious and had sadly lost her husband less than a month ago. The grief was still raw.

I find it fascinating that in a room full of women, it takes less than 20 minute for the conversation to turn to birth and birth stories. It's a tie that binds women of all time together. These ladies were recounting their birth stories with such vivid pain, but also extreme pride and fond memories. I was right there with them. They completely went nuts over Barclay and held him most of the night. I also find it so special watching them talk to him, that it reminds me of how I talk to them. The whole night they were just reliving their memoires of motherhood. It brought tears to my eyes.

Another topic that night was the one of death and of looking back on one's life when you are nearing the end of it. Two of our new friends were clearly not Christian believers. They talked about their lives now like it was a waste, their lovers were gone and died, their children were far away and didn't care, they felt like the good times were gone and the only thing left to look forward to was rest...but they had no idea where. One of our near friends never told us she was a believer, but we connected with our eyes and I could just tell. Her outlook on life was complete opposite, even though her husband had just died. She was content and unjaded. I really felt a connection with her.

We had a delicious dinner with yummy red wine. We talked, laughed, shared stories, and all in all I think we made eachother's nights.

I'm so thankful for a husband who is truly interested in other people no matter what their age. He has taught me so much and I now have three new friends that I will be inviting over for a dinner party soon.