Painter with heart of gold shows her true colours

Spring is on the horizon, Wildlife awakening from sleep, Bright yellow celandines, From the hedgerows peep. Starting to get energized, Is good for heart and mind, Making the most of the great outdoors, Helps us to unwind.

Stacey won a competition. For sharing a DIY company’s advert, she won a tub of paint, some brushes and a roller. A week later, I asked which part of her house she had painted. “My neighbour’s hall and stairs,” she replied.

Now, her own house is pretty bare and she never has any money to spare. I reminded her of previous times good things had come her way and she had passed them straight on to others. I couldn’t help but ask: “Don’t you ever think you should allow some of that good fortune to stay with you? You deserve it as much as anyone.”

She looked inquisitively at me for a moment. Then she smiled. “Perhaps,” she said, “we have a different idea of what good fortune is.”

And I realised she was right. I’d thought the good fortune lay in the receiving. For her, it was the unexpected opportunity to give!

Billy knew her as a nuisance neighbour who had appeared from nowhere, disrupted the street for a year, then “did a runner”.

I knew who he was talking about. I knew she could be unpleasant. I also knew some of what she’d been through to make her that way. I shared that with my friend.

“Ahhh...” he said. Then he took a passport-sized photo from his pocket.

“This blew over our fence when the workmen were clearing the house. I imagine she kept it with her through all of that.”

The photo showed a girl of about five in a knitted outfit. There were rabbits and ducks in the pattern. Her smile radiated out. It was from a time before her troubles began.

“If you see her again...” said Billy, a little embarrassed. “Maybe... give her this. Tell her to remember she was happy... and could be again!”

I keep that picture safe. Just in case.

They were walking across the supermarket car park. I recognised a friend and a shorter figure with her hood pulled up. I didn’t shout but felt compelled to watch.

They had similar builds and both leaned slightly into the wind.

They almost walked in sync, but the smaller one had shorter legs. An occasional skip made up for the difference.

They weren’t walking hand in hand, but they couldn’t have been closer if they had been.

Something about them seemed to say: “She belongs to me and I belong to her.”

I mentioned it to my friend the next time I saw her. She said: “That was my granddaughter.

“The best thing I ever did was take retirement so I could spend time with her.”

Isn’t that a beautiful thing? Love each other so the world can see it – without a word being spoken!

“Most of us remember our grandparents as old folk,” George said.

He had been feeling nostalgic and missing his gran, who has been gone for almost 30 years. So, he had taken her old Bible down from the shelf and noticed a couple of dog-eared pages.

Actually, they were the only dog-eared pages. And they covered The Song of Solomon. Often taken as an analogy of the love between God and humanity, it is written as a passionate, sensual love letter between a man and a woman.

“Gran wasn’t always gran,” George added. “I’m thinking that as her body aged her heart stayed young – and in love!”

May it is so for all of us, and may we learn to look beyond the years to the love that lives within.