"Have you got something he can touch?"

asks the man standing next to another who is using a walker. 
    "Of course," I say and hold out one of the small patches I have been knitting.
Hands touch the patch and then hands move between the two men.
    "Can you tell him I am making a top?" I ask
Hands move again.
    " And I am making pieces for a quilt," A.... says. Yet again, hands move after he has touched it gently.
And then I say, "May I....?"
I hold out my hand with the thumb slightly lowered and then up in that widely known gesture for "good". I am asking it as a question this time.
Hands move. I can understand just enough to understand that this man is being told "the lady has a question she wants to ask you and she can do it herself".
He reaches out and I repeat the movement so he can feel it. He smiles and his own thumb goes up on one hand as, with the other, he tightly grasps my mine in thanks.
I know almost nothing about communicating with someone who is both deaf and blind.  I wish I knew more, that I could have told this man that I was more than happy to let him touch. 
There were other people at the show yesterday. I failed to recognise a newsreader on a commercial television station who wanted to know about a small pullover. I did recognise a newspaper columnist and he gave me a despairing look as he trailed around after his wife and grandchildren. "No letters about this one Cat!"
No, I won't.
We had school children coming through. One group was an English language group. That particular group was composed of children whose parents will only be here for two or three years before moving on. They were fascinated by the giant knitting needles and several of them tried. It was interesting to see that the Swiss girl, the Korean girl and the Japanese girl all knew how to knit.  The Swiss girl told me carefully, "At school at home we all learn."
We sold raffle tickets for the Cancer Council quilt raffle. I  talked to people about the display of Victorian era items in the central cabinet.  I answered other questions.
Middle Cat and P.... arrived with the Senior Cat. He had a wonderful day - although he was exhausted by the end of it. We both hit the sleeping mats very early last night.
But the thing that has stayed with me is the smile on the face of the deaf-blind man as he did, however briefly, communicate with someone he didn't know at all. That made my day. I hope it made his too.