From Shore to Shore

Wow! Just dawned on me that I can honestly say, with a totally straight face, that my reputation as an empathic, worlds-expanding grannie listener has spread from shore to shore!  

Last night, the chocolatier/macaroon baker from Stockton Farm Market, the fellow who spotted me at B&N with John (see previous post), told his wife how he'd experienced my interaction with a grannie client that afternoon.  He'd been moved by how I helped ease her out of feeling leery (his word) about trying one of the small, beckoning bars of his remarkable handmade chocolates, how my words & attitude opened up an opportunity where she'd only seen uncertainty, concerned with outside the norm they were from her usual Hershey or Godiva.  From what he described, I opened up the choice. 

John stood there, practically busting his buttons with pride, knowing that's precisely what I hope to do for every grannie client.
  

John wasn't with us this past Wednesday, when I whisked my grannie client up to Centre Bridge In to hear Barbara Trent sing her amazing song book of jazz standards & lesser known pieces.  He's usually with us (only fair, since he introduced me to Barbara during our courting days), but stayed home to work on a commission.  He missed something special, since Barbara sang well past her usual 9:30ish close, all the way to 10:00 p.m.  

Several times during the evening, Barbara pointed out that while her Friday crowd is considerable larger, our cozy Wednesday group is something special, that it "feels like family."  

Feels like family - she's stressed that again & again since Christmas.  

Hadn't occurred to me that sense might be newly underscored by my client's presence:  she adds the "grannie" to the family, since at 92 she's old enough to be not only be mom to the several 60-somethings, but also to the 72-years old Barbara, and be grandma to the young people (the inn's chef & his gal pal) who round out the evenings.  

Mind you, it's only been a few months - since November 2012 - that our merrie trio has meandered  up the River Road to hear Barbara, while the regulars have been going for YEARS.  Every week, they've given us a warm welcome, but I never presumed to think of us on the same footing.  That changed on 01/23.

Right from the beginning, things were different this past Wednesday.  For one thing, we had dinner there, our first time.  I'd wanted the evening to be extra special, since we weren't getting together on Saturday, a night my client particularly dreads spending alone.  Instead of her eating with friends at her lovely senior living residence or the two of us enjoying Tim & Co.'s camaraderie at New Galaxy Diner, we sat at our favorite table near the teeny piano.  We dined on the best fish & chips I've ever sampled (and very affordable, from the Tavern Menu) while she supped on the more $$ but fabulous Grilled Shrimp with Risotto.  When we arrived, Barbara still wasn't there, a first for us! 

Seems the regulars didn't realize at first that we were the two eating there.  We were there a good 90 minutes before our usual arrival & were having dinner, not just our usual imbibing.  Maybe that made them want to come over & chat. After Barbara sang her last note, it seemed each of them made an opportunity to drop do just that.  The wanted to let us know how much they loved watching us interacting.  They'd picked up she wasn't my mother, but were thrown by my attitude toward her.  "We would NEVER have thought she's just a client!"  

They love how she listens raptly to Barbara's singing, to how well she holds up well enough to basically close the place down, to how she takes these moments to LIVE.  A summary of what they told her would be, "We want to be like you when we get older - and we want her (me) to be our sidekick!!"  

And with those comments, with Barbara coming over to join the conversation & lay out her own admiration of my client's verve, we became regulars.  

What lovely reinforcement from two totally different places & people that what I seek to do as a "life enthusiast, grannie listener" seems to work.  New worlds are presenting themselves, options - which olders have increasing fewer of - are opening up, verve in the spirity & a spring in the step seem restored.  That might not sound like much to you; to me, it is everything I set out to accomplish.

So what about "from shore to shore"??  Well, it's true - because the Centre Bridge Inn in tucked along the Pennsylvania shore of the Delaware, while Stockton nestles on the NJ side, linked by the span of Centre Bridge. 

Maybe my shore to shore isn't from the canyons of Manhattan to San Francisco Bay, but it's a really good start!!