The House Where Everyone Meets
There is one in every neighborhood. It is not necessarily the prettiest, the biggest, the best maintained porch, but it does belong to a person who collects people like iron filings to a magnet.
When that person moves outside to sit in a comfortable rocker, you can bet very soon, the first visitor will arrive. And then another and another.
Our people magnet was Simona. She handed out warm smiles, endearing hugs and a glass of tea or steaming cup of coffee to all who enter her porch. She shared roughly five rocking chairs on a fairly narrow front porch. The number stretched as more people arrived and the seating from the back porch moved around until barely a foot of space lay between us. Fortunately, our neighborhood contained only nine houses.
Simona kept her home immaculate inside and out, yet never did it feel sterile and unfriendly. We all knew where the coffee pot is located and made ourselves at home getting a fresh cup.
All News That Is The News Got Shared
We chattered like magpies about current news, silliness we heard and occasionally, we seniors, as most of us are, got a bit risqué, teasing the single folk mercilessly. Faces turned a bit red, but you can bet, given another opportunity, all came back for another round.
We may have passed along a few gripes or maybe hints on care of pets. Perhaps we gained a little knowledge on how to make repairs without calling in an expensive repairman. One terrific man who believes woman need to stay off of ladders always offered help.
Was he looking for a date? Nope, he looked to be helpful. Of course, he also suffered from vertigo occasionally, so we worried about him on those ladders, too.
That is the beauty of The Porch in every neighborhood. We find out how everyone is doing, if anyone needs help and whether we can lend a hand. The Porch gathering tightens the community, sweetens friendships and lets each person know there is someone out ‘there’ willing to be on call when needed.
The Porch, our Simona’s porch, remained the backbone of our community. The rest of us sat on our porches ’til doom’s day and rarely did anyone join us. Yet, each day, it became a ritual, waiting for Simona to appear, wave to her neighbors, letting us know The Porch was open for friendship.
A Major Loss
Dear Simona became ill, so ill she had to move nearer her children. A younger couple bought her home. They are sweet, thoughtful people but their porch doesn’t beckon as Simona’s did. That leaves us wondering…was it the porch or the beautiful lady who held sway over our group? I’m betting on the lady.