Carol "The Cat Lady"
Carol responded to my request for moving boxes. She called and graciously offered boxes I could use to prepare for my upcoming move. I went this morning to pick up the proffered boxes and found so much more.
Carol is an elderly widow (about my age but whose allowed her hair to be naturally gray--when will I find the courage) living near me in Surprise, Arizona. Instead of an "active adult community" she and her husband opted to retire in a multi-generational family development. She owns a lovely 4 bedroom home on a quiet residential street where she is quite possibly the only retired person, and now a widow. But Carol is not isolated. She knows everyone in her community, has befriended a Columbian woman two decades younger who calls every day to check on Carol's well begin. The neighborhood children all know her because she has a garage full of toys. When I asked her, she told me that since she doesn't want to always be giving the children sweets, she keeps bins filled with stuffed animals, most of which she buys at Goodwill, washes, cleans, and sorts and then gives to the neighborhood children.
Carol is also the cat lady. She currently has 9 cats in her odor free home. One of the cats came from a bin at Goodwill where someone thrust it when it was only 6 weeks old. How fortunate Carol was available and willing to take on still another cat. During my visit a couple of the cats came and went but they were quiet, unobtrusive, and clean. You'd never know there were nine cats living and thriving in the house. Except, Carol does keep a shelf filled with small urns holding the remnants of her prior pets, dots and one cat. In the bedroom sits the urn holding her husband's ashes. It doesn't seem creepy, but warm and loving--as is Carol.
Carol loves Southwestern art and decor. Every surface, as well as the furniture, speaks SouthWest. There are paintings, oils, sand prints, watercolors, sketches, photos, all featuring the SW. Wall art, numbering the hundreds, is carefully displayed on every inch of wall space. And there are the figurines, hundreds of them. But Carol is not a hoarder. Each piece has been selected, placed, cleaned and maintained. Her collection brings her joy, not obsession.
What have I been learning recently? I see my own life as very small, everyone I know fits into the same square--middle-class, educated, a house, good decisions, a retirement plan, children and grandchildren, world travel-more or less. And then there's Carol, and my homeless acquaintance from Grand Central in New York, and the vendor selling pomegranate juice from a small stand in Bangkok. There's a whole world out there, a world filled with Carols living a life so different from mine. How do we measure happiness? or importance? or one who contributes to Tikkun Olam? How do we get to know a world of people who are not "doing it my way"?
Carol is an elderly widow (about my age but whose allowed her hair to be naturally gray--when will I find the courage) living near me in Surprise, Arizona. Instead of an "active adult community" she and her husband opted to retire in a multi-generational family development. She owns a lovely 4 bedroom home on a quiet residential street where she is quite possibly the only retired person, and now a widow. But Carol is not isolated. She knows everyone in her community, has befriended a Columbian woman two decades younger who calls every day to check on Carol's well begin. The neighborhood children all know her because she has a garage full of toys. When I asked her, she told me that since she doesn't want to always be giving the children sweets, she keeps bins filled with stuffed animals, most of which she buys at Goodwill, washes, cleans, and sorts and then gives to the neighborhood children.
Carol is also the cat lady. She currently has 9 cats in her odor free home. One of the cats came from a bin at Goodwill where someone thrust it when it was only 6 weeks old. How fortunate Carol was available and willing to take on still another cat. During my visit a couple of the cats came and went but they were quiet, unobtrusive, and clean. You'd never know there were nine cats living and thriving in the house. Except, Carol does keep a shelf filled with small urns holding the remnants of her prior pets, dots and one cat. In the bedroom sits the urn holding her husband's ashes. It doesn't seem creepy, but warm and loving--as is Carol.
Carol loves Southwestern art and decor. Every surface, as well as the furniture, speaks SouthWest. There are paintings, oils, sand prints, watercolors, sketches, photos, all featuring the SW. Wall art, numbering the hundreds, is carefully displayed on every inch of wall space. And there are the figurines, hundreds of them. But Carol is not a hoarder. Each piece has been selected, placed, cleaned and maintained. Her collection brings her joy, not obsession.
What have I been learning recently? I see my own life as very small, everyone I know fits into the same square--middle-class, educated, a house, good decisions, a retirement plan, children and grandchildren, world travel-more or less. And then there's Carol, and my homeless acquaintance from Grand Central in New York, and the vendor selling pomegranate juice from a small stand in Bangkok. There's a whole world out there, a world filled with Carols living a life so different from mine. How do we measure happiness? or importance? or one who contributes to Tikkun Olam? How do we get to know a world of people who are not "doing it my way"?
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