I gave my signed "do-whatever-you-will-to-me-and-I-will-hold-you-harmless" paper and the string of address label-size stickers to the receptionist and followed her direction to have a seat in the waiting room. Everyone had spaced themselves from each other so that my choices were limited to less personal space than I otherwise might have taken.
"I love that shirt!" the lady to my left exclaimed. "And I have one just like it. I got mine in Florida!"
She looked like Mrs. Santa Claus and spoke with an endearing slight lisp and a wisp of a southern accent.
"We love color," I said.
Giving a quick look down at her bright pink print t-shirt, she said, "Oh yes, we do."
"My nephew's getting married in August and you should see the dress I'm going to wear. It's good it'll be outdoors . . . if it were indoors, I'd make everybody blind! The brighter the colors, the better I feel!"
We chuckled together, flamboyant kindred souls.
"You know, three years ago my granddaughter got married on top of a mountain in the Rockies. I wore a biiiig round (arms reaching toward her feet and sweeping from front to sides) turquoise skirt and a brown shirt."
"With silver jewelry."
She thought a minute, looking back into her memory. "Yes."
The groom's grandmother had worn turquoise and brown as well, she said, and "Wasn't that a coincidence? I think my granddaughter told them, so we'd match, but she said she didn't. ("didn't" in a high tone, with a slow side-to-side headshake) We hiked a mile and a half up this trail to get to where they got married. A Jeep could go only so far. And they had snacks up there at the top for us. Afterward we went to this . . . they'd rented a hacienda! and oh! it was wonderful! The food! I think his parents have money," she confided. "They owned a ski lodge."
"Well, that would be the place to own a ski lodge," I said.
"Oh, they had sold it by then, but they have quite a lot of money, you know. But they're the nicest people . . . you would never know. They're just as friendly and down to earth!"
The nurse came and called her in to see the doctor.
"And here I am, flappin' my mouth, just like always." She got up and started to leave, and stopped. "It's been nice talking with you."
What a pleasant prelude to a doctor visit.
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18 comments:
I do love those sorts of little encounters with pleasant folk! And I hope the visit to the doctor was indeed harmless.
A minute with a total stranger and your enter each other's lives and come away with such insights and memories. Close Encounters of the Worthwhile Kind.
Considering you lost so much of your personal space, she sounded a delightful distraction!
Love these moments! WIsh I had more of them. Thanks for sharing yours. I felt like I was there.
I love chance meetings like this that put a smile on my face the remainder of the day.
Sitting next to a happy person in a doctor's office is so much nicer, than listening to a complainer! Charnming post!
Thursday's post was a delight also, June...it's country living for me too.
those chance conversations are the best. Particularly, because they are temporary and fleeting and you will never have to see each other again.
A wonderful character sketch, June - I can picture her. I agree with Wanda - the happier the distraction at he DR's office the better. I just changed Internists because his "helper" person is always a grouch!
Honestly, she was so sweet, such a character. And her voice! Soft and a little high pitched, and that cute little lisp. For all I know it might be the result of a stroke, but it was nice to listen to.
And yes, Friko, I did have the same thought as you did: there need be no continuation, no relationship. Just two humans enjoying each other's company. Isn't that nice?
Rachel...more on the "harmless" issue later...
Hello! I found your lovely blog via Fridgesoup (I think - at least that's where I started out!). We could all do with chatting to strangers more... and some of the strangers really need chatting to as well (not necessarily you, I mean lonely people). 8-)
I read somewhere us humans need 30 social interactions each day to stop us going loopy loo - and how nice when they are as jolly as that one.
Anna May x
Somewhere there's a sweet woman in bright clothes, typing about her chance encounter with this lovely person who entertained her with pleasant chitchat until her doctor was ready for her. Her readers are just as enchanted as yours are.
I hope your appointment went well.
That's the kind of thing you need before a doctor's visit to prevent you from just sitting there waiting.
I'll bet she smiles when she remembers the conversation, too - two happy people in the space of a few kinds moments - human interaction at its best :)
Those moments are the best. Afraid I'll talk to anyone, anywhere. In a way it is a bit like blogging. Immediate intimacy with a perfect stranger.
Those are some of the best conversations... you just never know what you're going to get! Don always says that he just doesn't understand how I can strike up a conversation with everyone and anyone, any time, about any thing!
I love moments like that ! The older I get , the more often it happens . Do I look less forbidding or as though I have the time to chat ? Who knows .
Wonderful description! I always tell my writing classes to write up conversations they have had (or overheard.)
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