Week Three: Food Delivery for a Sick Friend of a Friend.

This week’s adventure is a tad different than the last two. Last Thursday, an out-of-town friend reached out to me and asked if I could spare her a favour. Ashly, a lovely mademoiselle whom I had the pleasure meeting during my student association years at the University of Ottawa, sent a distressed Facebook message to some specially chosen pals. In a nutshell, the message read that one of her dear friends in Ottawa became very ill during the Holidays and was rushed to hospital where he had to stay for 2 weeks. Now I won’t share all of his medical details, as it is not my place to do so but to my knowledge, her friend was quite sick. 

She mentioned that some of his loved ones did take some time off work to be there in the hospital with him, but now that he's returned home for a mandatory 1 month rest, they unfortunately can't be by his side anymore. So Ashly, being the wonderful person that she is, decided to send a message to some people she knew in Ottawa to drop in and check up on her friend and perhaps bring him some tasty dishes to help the poor lad out. I agreed to to her request without hesitation. I thought that this would be a great thing to do for Ashly as I knew that she was probably heartbroken about the fact that she couldn't be there herself to look after him. So I got cooking and decided to make vegetable lasagna. (Thanks to my friend Emilie for the recipe! I altered it a bit by using spaghetti squash and zucchini instead of eggplant, but it was still very tasty!) 

When I made my way to the Glebe area last night to render the meal, I was greeted at the door by a very grateful young gentleman. He took the time to explain to me what had happened, despite the number of times that he had to repeat it to every other goody-bearing friend of Ashly's. He said that as he is often very tired and weak, which makes it difficult for him to cook. He expressed his deepest gratitude and appreciated the effort and time that I dedicated to prepare something for him. This genuine heartfelt thank you was all very touching and moving. 

On my walk back home, after saying goodbye, I felt myself light up inside. As this was the first time that I actually witnessed a reaction, I realized how much of an impact that a simple gesture can really have on someone. I was also glad that I was able to reignite a bit of this sense of community that our younger generations seemed to have lost with the years. As everything seems to be getting more and more impersonal these days, it felt good to resort back to good ol’ human interactions. Maybe it is just my small-town mentality making its way to the surface here, but nonetheless, it never hurts to be kind to your neighbours.

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This is how I feel at the moment.
G.