Good neighbours

can make all the difference.

I was in a meeting yesterday when I got an urgent text message from someone I barely know. Could I possibly come and mind their two children for an hour?

It would have sounded odd if I had not known the circumstances. I met the mother and the two children recently. They were looking for the library. I pedalled over there with them telling them something about it on the way. In return I found they had just moved in to the district and knew nobody. It seems that everyone around them goes to work - or keeps to themselves. In these Covid19 times the latter is as likely as the former. They had moved to be closer to the husband's work and to care for her mother.  A little further investigation and I realised that I know her mother on a "hello" and "nice day" sort of basis. I had sometimes wondered whether she should be living alone but she does not live on my usual route to the library or the shopping centre. She is not that old but she seemed a little odd. Her daughter admitted that her mother has a form of dementia related to a traumatic brain injury and they felt that she was no longer safe alone.

Perhaps it was all of that which made the young mother send me the urgent message. Her mother had injured herself in an at home accident caused by her dementia. She had been rushed to hospital and her daughter had been asked to attend urgently. 

I think it is a good marriage. Her husband did not want her to have to go alone. Who could they ask to look after the two children until his sister could get there? They didn't know the neighbours. 

I had given them my phone number because the husband needed a piece of timber to do a repair. He had come and picked it up during the week. They know me although hardly well. Yes, call Cat and ask. 

I told them where I was that I didn't mind not attending the meeting. Whatever happened there someone would tell me later and I would be with them as soon as I could be there. 

The children greeted me anxiously. Yes, they knew who I was. I was the person who had shown them where the library was and was I going to stay until Aunty L... came?  I most definitely was going to stay. That was all right then. Their parents left in a rush. 

And so I spent time "directing traffic" as the two children raced around the back garden on their bikes and then other things. I could see the older child was feeling anxious but he was trying to be sensible for his younger brother. 

It was a relief to hear a car pull slowly into the driveway.

"Aunty L....is here," the older child told me looking relieved. Then he gave me a sort of lopsided smile as if to say, "I don't mind you being here but we know Aunty L...." 

Aunty L.... was very pleasant. The children are obviously fond of her. She has children about the same age and, thankfully, car seats. The car seats were important. It meant she could take the children with her so she spoke to her brother and said she would take the children off to see their cousins for the night. 

I left them to it and went home. I made myself a cup of tea and watered some plants that don't get rain. Our neighbours across the way arrived home from a week away. They waved. I know I'll catch up with them sometime today.

But Aunty L...and I agreed. You need to know your neighbours. In an emergency you might need them or be needed by them. It was just sheer good fortune that they had been looking for the library and needed a piece of timber and I could help. 

I hope they get to know their neighbours soon.