Sunday 24 November 2013

Village kindness.

Every morning I take David into the village to collect his Times. It's been part of his routine for a long time and he enjoys it.

The village is quiet now until Christmas so parking is not a problem. Usually though I don't need to park. I drive to the harbour which is close to the paper shop. David gets out and goes for his paper whilst I turn the car round close to the harbour wall.

Yesterday the harbour master rushed out as I approached.

"I've heard about David" he said, "Park here whenever you need to."

By the time he'd got to the end of the sentence David was on his way back. The girl in the shop had brought his Times out for him.

Two small instances of kindness, repeated over and over in small ways every day.

There are two distinct communities here. The true locals whose families have always lived here and the comers in. They don't always work well together but they are all solidly in favour of David, who over the years has hired all of the tradesmen to do various jobs on the house and the church and knows them all well.

His illness has united the two groups wonderfully....and it's very touching indeed.

They do tend to get smartly out of my way though as I drive his large car around....but we are getting there, one way or another.

3 comments:

Ray Barnes said...

They sound a lovely community Jean. It's good to know there is help there if it is needed.
May you you have all the support you need.
BlessingsX

Revjeanrolt said...

Thank you Ray....it all helps!

UKViewer said...

Jean, as always prayers ongoing,

It must be a comfort to have such a supportive community, while I know that you wan't a certain amount of privacy, I'm only too aware of how news (good or bad) travels quickly in village communities where everyone knows each other.

The Benefice that I'm currently with until the end of December, has 5 churches scattered over a 5 mile square area with 5 individual villages, but they are quite tight knit as they all share the Church School, and even families who don't attend church join in to help others, because they've met them at the school gate or even been at school with each other over the generations.

While there are some incomers (and I include myself in that) the house prices have deterred many of the commuting types, while a large, local landowner still owns half of several of the villages and houses tend to pass down the generations in tenancies, particularly as many work on the land.

I'm really pleased to see a small development of social housing in the biggest village intended to keep young people in the village if possible, there are some good developers out there who will build to help keep communities together - but they are few and far between.