Every day, a lonely old woman watches the high school students passing by and waves at them. The children pay no attention to her, but one day she finds a beautiful bouquet at her door.
Gwendolen Parkins was 84 years old. She had once been a vibrant woman, but now she was confined to her wheelchair. Every afternoon she would sit on the veranda and watch people passing by.
Around five o’clock in the evening the nurse would bring her into the house for tea and Gwendolen would always complain. “This is the best part of my day,” she would say. “Can’t you let me stay a little longer?”
Dorry, Gwendolen’s nanny, always said the same thing: “You know, Miss Gwen, that it will soon get dark and too cold for you!”
“Nonsense!” – scoffed Gwen. ” Breathing air won’t take me away!”
“I do what the doctor tells me, Miss Gwen,” said Dorry. “That’s all!”
“But it’s so dark and lonely…” protested Gwen. “And there’s no one to talk to!”
“What about me?” – Dorry asked indignantly. “Am I nobody?”
“Oh, Dorry!” – Gwen said. “You know what I mean! There’s no one YOUNG!”
“Oooh!” – Dorry said. “I’ll be offended!”
“I’ve been a teacher for fifty years, Dorry,” Gwen explained. “I miss interacting with young people!”
The evening passed quickly enough, and the next morning Dorry took Gwen out on the veranda after breakfast. Dorrie gave Gwen the laptop, put a glass of lemonade and a plate of biscuits on the table beside her and went off to clean the house.
Soon the schools closed and the children began to leave. Gwen looked at them, smiling. She tried to greet them cheerfully.
A few younger children occasionally greeted her back, but the older ones looked away and pretended not to notice her. “That old woman is just crazy,” Wesley muttered. “She’s always watching us!”
“Yeah…” Gordy agreed. “Maybe she’s a witch!”
“I think she’s just lonely,” Billy said. “Imagine being so old that everyone you know is dead?”
” Damn,” said Wesley. “She must be a hundred years old!” The three boys walked past, talking amongst themselves, and Gwen sighed. They didn’t even bother to smile at her.
It was hard to be pushed away like that. She still had something to give, but no one was giving her that chance. The high school students reminded her of her students. She missed those days…
Every day the three boys walked past her, and it seemed as if they were trying to turn away from seeing Gwen waving at them from the veranda.
One day something strange happened. Dorry was sweeping the porch early in the morning when she discovered a large bouquet of roses and carnations on the doorstep.
“Miss Gwen!” – Dorry exclaimed. “You have an admirer!”
“What?” – exclaimed Gwen, sniffing the flowers. “Who could have left those flowers here?”
Both women had been talking about flowers all morning, and Gwen was agitated as she sat on the porch. Was her secret friend going to come and talk to her?
Only one of the boys walked past her that day, and when Gwen waved to him, he shyly responded to her greeting.
“Hello, you!” – shouted Gwen. “Did you bring the flowers?” The boy blushed and nodded and Gwen said: “Come in and have some tea!”
Billy hesitated, then ran towards Gwen’s house. “Hello,” he said. “My name is Billy.”
“Sit down, Billy,” Gwen said. “Where are your friends?”
“Oh,” said Billy, “Gordy and Wesley are in Washington this week at maths camp.”
“And you?” – Gwen asked.
Billy shrugged his shoulders. “My math skills aren’t very good,” he explained. “I’m trying, but…”
“I was a pretty good maths teacher,” Gwen said. “If you want, I can teach you.”
“Really?” – Billy asked, “I mean. Was maths the same in your day?”
Gwen laughed. ” Darling, mathematics is a universal language that evolves but never changes!”
“Language?” – Billy asked doubtfully. “How can numbers be a language?”
“It’s a language that people have invented to describe the physical world,” says Gwen. “Give me some paper and a pen…” Billy and Gwen spent the rest of the day in a heated discussion.
The old professor had her own method of explaining theorems, which Billy liked. “I got it!” – he exclaimed enthusiastically, picked up the paper and wrote the next line of the equation. “It’s simple!”
“The answers are always simple,” Gwen said with a smile. “The trick is to understand the questions.”
When Gordy and Wesley returned from math camp, they were in for a surprise. They walked past Gwen’s house, but instead of turning away, Billy waved back.
“Hey, Billy,” Gordy said. “What’s up, man?”
“She’s really cool,” Billy said, “she’s been a big help. I like her.”
“That old bag helped you?” – laughed Wesley, rolling his eyes. “Whatever, man!”
“I’m serious,” Billy said, “and if you weren’t such a sucker, you’d give her a chance and love her too…”
After lunch, Gwen invited the three guests over for tea. The meeting was such a success that the next day the five children sat on the porch steps.
Since then not a day has gone by that Gwen has not welcomed a new visitor. Some came for help with maths or science, but many others came for lively conversation.
Dorry always snorted and said they only came for biscuits, but Gwen laughed. It was nice to know that she had found a way to reach out and educate bright new minds in her later years.
