there was an old woman....

ISN

this old woman across the street on the top floor of her apartment block (3) flutters around her balcony....she tends her plants, wears housedresses......she's tall and thin, about 70.....with a bent back, but hey all old women have bent backs......sometimes she gets dressed up......she sits at her iron grille table on a chair with her back to the sun, reading the newspaper.....sometimes she stands at the french windows reading the newspapers.......at night her apartment is lit up by the telltale blue flickering light of the ubiquitous television......I took a dislike to her.....she seems snooty.....I always looked over at her when she was there suspiciously.....I saw her granddaughter and daughter turn up around Christmas, and occasionally take her out shopping, but mostly she's on her own.....doing her own thing.....

from the introduction to Mrs Dalloway Everyman by Nadia Fusini

The old lady is alone, absorbed in the small rituals of her solitude

to me she seemed aloof, frosty.....not my type of old dear.....too brittle maybe......

but then one day, when Torin was in the stage of throwing everything over the balcony, as a ruse to get downstairs to alleviate the tedium of being at home with Mum when she's working, he threw a ball over the balcony......the old lady had just gotten into her daughter's car across the street......her plump daughter noticed the ball landing on the grass in front of our apartment, and got out of her car, and walked across the street, up the steps to the grass, picked up the ball, and full of some wonderful Australian spirit, threw it up into the air for me to catch, she then noticed the other green one that he had thrown earlier, and threw that up too.....I caught both of them with a bit of a giggle.......we exchanged some kind of trivial pleasantries, and she walked back to her mother, and drove off......

ever since this happened, I've looked at that old woman across the street as being some kind of lovely independent neighbour.....I look fondly over at her balcony, and smile.......tonight after putting out the laundry on the clothes horse, I thought to myself, when did I see the old lady last......I wondered if she was okay, and made a mental note to keep an eye on her......oh, how things change when we change our minds.....how different things can seem.....thanks for reading

burtschips

it's good when that happens, when perceptions shift positively and being open minded.

twin2

ISN wrote:

this old woman across the street on the top floor of her apartment block (3) flutters around her balcony....she tends her plants, wears housedresses......she's tall and thin, about 70.....with a bent back, but hey all old women have bent backs......sometimes she gets dressed up......she sits at her iron grille table on a chair with her back to the sun, reading the newspaper.....sometimes she stands at the french windows reading the newspapers.......at night her apartment is lit up by the telltale blue flickering light of the ubiquitous television......I took a dislike to her.....she seems snooty.....I always looked over at her when she was there suspiciously.....I saw her granddaughter and daughter turn up around Christmas, and occasionally take her out shopping, but mostly she's on her own.....doing her own thing.....

from the introduction to Mrs Dalloway Everyman by Nadia Fusini



to me she seemed aloof, frosty.....not my type of old dear.....too brittle maybe......

but then one day, when Torin was in the stage of throwing everything over the balcony, as a ruse to get downstairs to alleviate the tedium of being at home with Mum when she's working, he threw a ball over the balcony......the old lady had just gotten into her daughter's car across the street......her plump daughter noticed the ball landing on the grass in front of our apartment, and got out of her car, and walked across the street, up the steps to the grass, picked up the ball, and full of some wonderful Australian spirit, threw it up into the air for me to catch, she then noticed the other green one that he had thrown earlier, and threw that up too.....I caught both of them with a bit of a giggle.......we exchanged some kind of trivial pleasantries, and she walked back to her mother, and drove off......

ever since this happened, I've looked at that old woman across the street as being some kind of lovely independent neighbour.....I look fondly over at her balcony, and smile.......tonight after putting out the laundry on the clothes horse, I thought to myself, when did I see the old lady last......I wondered if she was okay, and made a mental note to keep an eye on her......oh, how things change when we change our minds.....how different things can seem.....thanks for reading

This was very interesting reading and it is so true. It's kind of like that saying, "never judge a book by it's cover" in a way. It's funny how people can change their view over something so small.

depopulationINC

that was pretty interesting.