Mysterious pumpkins left on front porches
Unexpected kindness ‘made my day,’ says Rolls Avenue resident
Hazel Geary has enough pumpkin soup in her freezer to last her all winter, and she doesn’t know who to thank for it.
She said she opened the front door of her Rolls Avenue home on Saturday morning, and was shocked to find three pumpkins sitting on the steps of her home. She soon noticed every home on the St. Catharines street had pumpkins on their front porches, too.
“Every single house on Rolls Avenue got some, and as far as I could tell from walking around the neighbourhood, it was nobody else,” Geary said. “And every single person got three pumpkins.
“It was such a nice thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning. It was just a nice bright good thing,” she added. “It just made me feel good.”
But it also led residents to speculate about who was responsible for the kindness and generosity.
She said one of her neighbours saw four men with a truck, pulling a trailer early Saturday and delivering the pumpkins to the doorsteps.
“I just want to thank whoever it was, for whatever reason. I don’t know. It was just nice,” Geary said.
“I can’t tell you how much that act of kindness made my day in a time when these small kindnesses can help brighten a lonely person’s day,” she said.
“I was hoping I could say something or do something for whoever gave us the pump
kins.”
She said she hopes to let whoever dropped off the pumpkins know she won’t let them go to waste.
“I will certainly cook them up, whether I make soup or pie or breads. I will certainly be cooking for the next month.”
Geary said she doesn’t expect many of the pumpkins to be carved into jack-o’-lanterns.
Although there are a few families with young children on the street, she said most of her neighbours are older residents.
“I’ve been here for 22 years and my neighbours still say I’m the new kid on the block.”