During one of my summer visits to my grandads farm, me and my uncle (Sam was more like a big brother)were in town one day with grandma. We ran into the daughter of the local doctor. She was in her twenties and with just one look you could tell, she was a lady of adventure. Sam and I were 9 and 10 respectively and both enamored by her.
She asked Sam and I if we would like to take a ride in her new sports car. It was an MG convertible. Of course we jumped at the offer. After all we were just a couple of country bumpkins who had never seen a foreign sports car,let alone rode in one. She gave us an exiting ride. Shifting thru the gears in rapid fashion, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. It is a memory that has stayed imprinted on my brain to this very day.
Today I am semi retired. I have a handy man service doing small carpentry jobs and lawn work. A few days ago I had the chance to thank her again. I received a call from a lady who needed some yard work done. The name rang a bell and I realized it was the lady who had given Sam and I that sports car ride many years ago. When i first arrived we began to converse and I told her I had never forgotten that ride and thanked her again. She went on to say she missed that car and wished she had it back. As she talked about the car she went on to say that her daughter was trying to get her to stop driving. She is in her eighties now and her daughter felt she shouldn't be driving.
I told her to keep driving as long as she could. And mentioned how I understood, and that driving is part of our independence. I think any of us who are lucky enough to live as long as she has will face that dilema one day.
As I drove home that day I felt a little sad. Someone who had given me that thirst for life and adventure was on the verge of having her life altered. My thoughts were with her remembering the fun Sam and I had, flying down the road in that blue convertible with our hair in the breeze. X.
