saturdays with ella

For a while now I've come down an hour prior to opening on Saturdays and will sit and knit while eating my bagel. Most people who read these ramblings know this already. However, there has been an addition to my Saturday mornings and her name is Ella.

Every Saturday morning I will go in, get my latte and bagel and sit to work on whatever knitted thing I currently have on the needles. I get a few rows done before Ella comes in. As soon as she comes in I put down the knitting and give her my undivided attention. Ella is an elderly woman. She has macular degneration. She has tremors. She's fallen and broken ribs. But every Saturday she makes it into the city to have her coffee and get her hair done. We've become fast friends. I look forward to our conversations. Sometimes they are about a time long past. Other times current events. She has grown very dear to me.

I am hoping to get her photograph soon. I want to always remember her zest for life. Just today she told me that she will sometimes take the Max (our train) out to the airport to simply get a cup of coffee and to walk around the shops there. "It's an adventure. It's fun," she says. I smile and know that it's things like that that will keep her young at heart. Her freedom is important to her. She doesn't let her body get her down. Sure she moves slower than she used to, but she makes adjustments and deals with things accordingly. She doesn't let her eyesight hinder her love of life. She quite simply, lives.

I get something from her that I have been missing. And I don't think I knew I'd been missing it until just recently.