The Sweetest Grapes

 The Sweetest Grapes

I don’t remember the last time we went out as a family, so I was glad we were actually doing something this memorial day weekend. I took the responsibility of planning today’s outing- picnic at Blue lake out in the town of Fairview! I hustled everyone to grab their masks, put on sunscreen and get into the jeep. We did not want to spend too much time packing food, so we decided to just pack some water and fruits, and pick up pizza on the way.

It was right around noon by then, and it felt like a million degrees out there. We were waiting at a red light, at the intersection just ahead of the pizza store, and my dad noticed a man in a wheelchair crossing the street. We all felt sorry for that man, because his wheelchair was manual, and he was having a hard time pushing it across the intersection. Just as we pulled into the stripmall, my mom remembered that we had packed some grapes for the picnic, and decided to give them to the man in the wheelchair.

When mom got back to the car with the pizza, she gave us the details of her encounter with the man. Apparently he was almost at his destination. His reaction to mom’s offer was- “Thank you, but are you sure you don’t want your tupperware back?”. Something about this man tugged at my dad’s heart. He watched the oldman in the rearview mirror still struggling to reach his backpack hanging at the back of his wheelchair to put away the newly acquired box of grapes. Dad quickly opened his wallet and gathered all the cash he had and put them in mom’s hands.

It was time for round#2 of mom/oldman interaction. This time, mom spent a lot longer with the old man. When she came back, mom was all teary eyed. She told us how the oldman hesitated to take the money, saying that there are a lot more people out there that need this money more than he does. Mom shared with him about our losing grandparents to covid recently, and that we just wanted to do what we can to those that are alive and in need. Listening to that, the oldman got emotional, and talked about people in so many countries losing their lives and livelihood due to Covid. Mom gathered that the oldman lost his job last year due to covid and has been facing hard times since then. Mom realized he could have been a veteran, likely even facing homelessness, but she said she did not want to ask him any of that. She wished him well and he thanked mom, and they parted ways.

We all went quiet in the jeep as dad pulled out of the stripmall. I could see the oldman slowly rolling his wheelchair out towards the Safeway store, behind which he said he lived. I thought of the grapes we gave him. I realized that the sweetest grapes aren’t even the ones we actually eat!