I’ve been sitting at my desk for roughly 10 minutes now…procrastinating. I’ll tell you why in a second. But first this:
I walked into the newsroom this morning (Tuesday…but it’ll be at least Friday by the time you read this) and I immediately noticed a lovely little plant on my desk. Unlike many (dare I say most) newspaper reporters, my desk isn’t stacked high with notebooks and documents, so I saw it right away. The plant came with a short note, matter-of-factly handwritten in black ink. It read:
Dear Sarah,
Just a little reminder
of my appreciation
for our friendship
All the best,
George
Do you remember my friend George Brewster?
I first started getting to know to him when I was assigned to write about Mr. Brewster’s trip to Dieppe in July of 2017. The following March, I wrote about being invited to his 95th birthday. I wrote about Mr. Brewster’s phone message a couple week after that. My last report was on April 21, shortly after my then two-year-old daughter and I attended his 95th birthday party at the Duncan Community Lodge.
We’ve kept in touch sporadically since then. I called him to say hello during the holidays and we had a nice talk, but this pink plant came out of the blue and it made me smile. It’s amazing what a small act of kindness can do. I urge you to give it a shot.
He called me later to ensure I received the plant as I wasn’t here when he came to the office to drop it off. Like a true gentleman, he had asked the ladies I work with if they thought my husband would mind him giving me flowers.
Mr. Brewster told me not to write about it because he wasn’t looking for attention but I’m ignoring that part because I like to talk about how kind he is to me and how much it brightens my day — even if it does make him blush a little. The man flew spitfires in the Second World War, surly he can handle a little embarrassment! Thank you Mr. Brewster. You made my day.
OK, back to my procrastination.
I just opened my email inbox (Tuesday morning) after being out of the office for the three days since the paper came out with my story about Mr. Nice and Dairy Queen bringing me a fantastic H-less cake. Based on the subject lines, it looks like my inbox has an inordinate amount of positive feedback about that story.
I can’t even believe it. (And I really appreciate it.)
So here I am, just sitting here, procrastinating. I don’t want to open them. Knowing they are there makes me happy. I worry that after opening them that joy will fade and it’ll be back to business as usual. I’ll get to them. But after last week’s dive into the dark depths of the Citizen‘s Facebook comment section, I’m quite content to sit for a moment and look forward to some pending positivity. I just wish I still had some of that ice cream cake left to enjoy while I wait.
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
