The little story teller

The little story teller

The apartment building that I live in overlooks a big beautiful green space and beyond that is a River, it is the most beautiful area that I have ever lived. My favourite place to sit is on my balcony that overlooks this beautiful scenery.

Every morning I have my cup of tea, something caught my eye this morning and watched this little girl walk out with her mom to place a blanket on the grass with several stuffed animals. The mother walked away to let her daughter play. On the first floor of our apartments the first floor balcony is right on the ground. I’m sure the mother was having her morning coffee watching her daughter.

The little girl placed her stuffies in a semi circle, and she opened her large book and read to her little animals. I couldn’t hear her talking but once and a while I could hear her laugh. She was so cute. She had long blonde hair that flowed in the wind, her tiny hands could barely hold on to the overly large book, and her legs crossed in front of her. On this particular day I could hear the birds chirping a little louder when she finished her story and was now singing to her little animals. 

The next day, while reading my book sitting on my balcony the little girl and her mom set up her little shrine. I wondered if they were new to the apartment building, or if I just never noticed. However, I hoped that this was going to happen more often because it brought a smile to me. The year is 2021 and we have been in lockdown off and on for a year now due to the Corona Virus. It has been been a tough year for the world, and for me. 

I am a widowed woman with two grown children. I just moved to this little town in Northern Ontario Canada to be closer to my daughter and her two children. I haven’t seen them much because of this virus but everyday we Skype, chat and I read stories to my grandchildren. The oldest is 7 and the youngest is 5. I wish I could help out my daughter more, and see the family which is why I moved. My son lives in a city, he is married with no children. He is very successful and helps out my daughter quite a bit and visits often before the pandemic.

Watching this little girl play with her little stuffies, is so cute and told my little granddaughter all about it. She now wants to have a picnic on the grass with her mom and brother so I can watch from my balcony. I thought that would be wonderful and a great idea. Today the little girl, was sitting cross legged and a little squirrel reluctantly sniffed the stuffies and laid down beside one of them watching the little girl. It looked like he wanted to hear the story. It was so cute.

This went on for several days were the squirrel would join in on the story. However, today was different a deer was near by, watching but didn’t get to close, and a tiny bird perched on the book, and hopped up with every page turn. I thought I was imagining this because it looked like the animals wanted to hear her story. When the story was over she picked up one of her stuffies and swirled it around while singing and dancing and the little bird and squirrel joined in the fun.

A week later while the mom and Sally( I heard her mom call her the other day) were setting up the shrine I could see the deer,  squirrel, and bird waiting for the mom to go back to the porch. This time the deer was at the edge of the blanket, the squirrel was by his favourite stuffy, the bird on the book and today a cat stopped by. Her blanket was getting fuller by the day. I looked around and I saw a few more people out on their balcony watching and smiling. We would wave at each other.

I did not know any of the tenants up until today. The winter was long with lots of snow, and food was delivered to the apartment so the only people I knew was my daughter, grandkids, Sally ( even though she didn’t know me) Today was the first day of spring and the air was a little brisk but the sun was shining. The grass has been open from the blanket of snow for quite some time because it was in full sun for most of the day.

The very best part of my day was watching Sally talk to the animals, dance with them and sing. I wondered if this little girl could actually talk to them or if they were just interested because she was no threat, and her tiny frame was not intimidating. Also, who doesn’t love a child’s voice when reading. She must have been around 7 because she had no problems reading the book. However, she looked so small in comparison to my granddaughter. Oh, how I hoped they would meet each other one day, and play, dance and sing to the animals. 

A week later I was sitting on my balcony having my early morning tea, sparking up a conversation with Betty sitting on her balcony on the right of me and Therese on her balcony on the left. It was nice to talk to people without wearing a mask. Therese said “ it’s 9:30 were is Sally”. All three of us looked down towards the area were Sally usually sits. The animals were around looking as well. The tiny bird flew up to us tweeted and flew off. It looked like the bird was also wondering. All three of us ladies got concerned and hoped she was ok.

Finally a couple of days later we saw Sally and her mother outside. The mom was bracing her daughter as they walked out to place the blanket down and helped Sally with her book and only one stuffy. The squirrels favourite one. The mom walked away touching her cheek, it looked like she was crying. The animals were excited to see Sally as much as Therese, Betty and I. We watched her struggle with the book, but she was a trooper. Today she was joined by two deer, the squirrel, the tiny bird, cat, and a stray dog. Sally didn’t get up to dance with the animals when she sang but the animals danced around her. A little while later the mom picked up her daughter and brought her back to their apartment. 

Betty, Therese and I new that something was wrong and hoped the little girl didn’t have Covid, or something else. Her hair was short, she was much more frail and she was very white. Her smile was bright, but her energy was not quite the same.

This went on for quite some time, and it seemed like there were more animals coming to her little blanket to join in on the story time and singing extravaganza. Sally tried her hardest to read the story but she looked so week. Every couple of days she would miss her story time, but the animals still came.

We new things were very bad when Sally was in a wheelchair, with a smaller book. Her mom still put the blanket down for the animals and the chinchilla stuffy( the squirrels favourite ) Betty was crying one day on her balcony, and Therese and I asked if she was ok. 

She said” I ran into Sally’s mom Glenda yesterday at the mailbox area. I told her that we watch Sally with the animals and asked if there was anything we could do to help. Glenda told me that little Sally was dying of cancer but didn’t want to leave her animals. So it is just a matter of time. We both embraced that day at the mailbox. We didn’t care about covid”. Betty looked at Therese and I ( now all of us crying) and said “ Sally is pushing through the pain of her cancer, for her animal friends and waiting for her dad to come home from the army. He was deployed a year ago”. I think we all cried that day for hours. The little chickadee, that was listening bowed its head and flew off.

Everyday, at that little spot were Sally sat in her wheelchair reading and singing to the animals more and more animals would come. The joy Sally had when the animals danced around her was magical. We could see that Sally was getting sicker by the day. Little Sally passed the next day after she reunited with her dad. The little chickadee come to visit Therese, Betty and I every morning while we drank our tea.