The Strawberry Chapter 15

The Strawberry Chapter 15

Multiple Seeds

by Katherine Aguilar

This story is about the seed of love and the sacrifice a person is willing to make for love, even if it means living in a van with two goats.

Yes, I did write the second sentence correctly. It was one of those interesting people I mentioned I met in my life.

The evening of this story takes place a few years back during winter. The wind made the evening colder, and the evening was going slowly. In previous chapters, I tend to listen to soft music and drink a cup of tea. Suddenly, an older woman who seemed to be in her late sixties entered. She looked tired and thin, wearing a thin jacket, perhaps seeking warmth inside the lobby. On evenings like this, I didn’t mind letting people come in. I just asked them to be low profile and not cause any drama that would make me ask them to leave. I knew I wasn’t supposed to do this. But it didn’t feel right just sending someone out into the cold, especially when the lobby was empty.

I greeted the lady and said, “Please go get some coffee or tea and warm up.” She was as pleasant and went for her coffee. She returned to the front desk. I asked her to tell me what was going on in her life. She began her story: her husband had been placed in a nursing home because he had fallen and could not get up. Since he was tall and heavy, she could not pick him up. He had, I believe, injured something a bit serious, but it was still manageable to be cared for at home. Which she would do. The hospital discharged him to Rehab to get a strong workout on the injured part of his body.

He never made it home from rehab. She wanted to take care of her husband. She visited her husband every day. She saw the care he was receiving and didn't like it. She said he had bed sores, rashes getting thinner. She saw the other patients in the same condition. She got angry. She told her son. Help me get my husband/your dad back.

Instead. The son took this as an opportunity to sell what the family had and blocked his mother from visiting her husband.

This killed her inside. She couldn't believe he had done this. Once the pain subsided.

She decided to fight! Not just for her husband, but also for other elderly people who are mistreated in Nursing Homes.

She took the pictures she had taken inside the Nursing Home, enlarged them, and plastered her car with them. She had a goat. Or got a goat to be with her as a friend to go with on her new journey in her life.

She went from living in a nice, beautiful house to living in a small apartment. Because her son sold everything of her husband and hers.

The life she had was over. Her son never thought she had any fight left in her. He was so wrong.

Her story was moving another person who was checking in. That customer at the hotel, who purchased a room for her for the night, so she wouldn’t have to sleep in her van. Her goats, registered as service animals, did not stay in the hotel.

What a sight to see and hear. This one little woman was a one-person campaign going across the US. Making a difference everywhere she went. Making it known she wanted her Husband back! They have been married for forty-five years.

After hearing her story. I told myself. What is my excuse? If she can make a difference in this world. I am sure I am able to make an impact on someone's life with my story. If I changed a thought or an idea for the better. It would be like putting soil on a seed for someone else who needed some.

Sometimes we get lost in our own pond of problems. Then we hear another person's story. It does cause you to think twice that your problem is not that big after all.

Someone else's seed of love

This chapter follows another person's love story of true love, detailing what they are doing to fight for their beloved.

The person is fighting to spend her remaining days together in peace. The person is fighting against her own son.

This breaks her heart, for she loves her son. They gave him everything, and for this to happen. He not only cries for her husband but also for her son.

What pain and torment has caused this person?

Her determination to fight for her true love or to die knowing she fought til her last breath.

Money

Every generation since the beginning of time has had the same focus on this one item. Money!

I can't even say I was different. When I got my first job. I was finally able to buy what I wanted. As I got older and as my life changed. I saw everything taken away from me.

Years back. My apartment burned down. With whatever little items I had left from the first time, taken away and burned up.

I realized they were all just items. Nothing!

I had carried and saved items that served no grand purpose in my life, but just to say I had them. Once I realized that.

Now, the objects I have and keep only one of will move me in a positive direction. Anything other than that is a dust collector and taking up my space.

When I have talked to young people trying to share this freedom, I found that they have set a new focus on money.

I would ask them what they like to do when they grow up.

They would just say I just want to make money, money, money!

I would also ask, "What are you going to do with this money?"

Money has been necessary to keep the economy going and to maintain a family. It is not the true source of happiness. If all a person's focus is on making money. They will be chasing it all their lives. The ones who will be truly enjoying the fruits of their labor are the people who get the money after that person is dead. The original seed will rot because the person receiving the money will not want to work. For they received all the money from the one who died.

What soil was put on that seed?

Proverbs"Dishonest money dwindles, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow."

Job

Finding a healthy job can be a struggle at times. Once you find a job where you are truly happy, regardless of pay. The comfort of knowing you enjoy what you're doing and doing what you love. You will never feel like you are working. Instead of telling yourself I am working to pay bills. Start telling yourself. I am working to give money away. It is the same thing. You are changing your mindset.

It took time to slow down and try to enjoy life. I am not running out to every museum exhibit or show. I am older now. I find something interesting or worth my time. The interests I picked up are painting, reading, and writing. Learning a new language just for fun. Will I have to use that language? I don’t know. I will be prepared just in case I run into a German person.

I could be a German translator one day. If not. It is just fun learning it. It is different.

Trying something different is not earth-shattering. To me, it is a step in the right direction of change in my life. Gelegheit (progress and change in German)

Time

The most valuable thing a person has in their life is time. Use it wisely. Even after reading this chapter. It will become a memory. You can not get that time back. If what was read made a difference in thought or added some soil to your own seed. Then it was a well-worth-reading