Missing Our Neighbor

Can you believe it’s time for another Friday Story Time by Lia? Where did the week go? Last week Lia drew chalk hearts in the driveway and stood there waving as cars went by! This is her blog if you missed it. http://themarthareview.com/sharing-my-hearts/ Today’s story is Lia sharing her hearts because she is missing our neighbor. Did you know today is NATIONAL ENCOURAGE A YOUNG WRITER, how appropriate for Lia’s story time!

Prologue

Our neighbor is 87 years old and she has enjoyed watching Lia grow from the time she was born. We take cookies or a dinner “take-out” to Ruth and she loves the visit. This is Lia at 10 months old, visiting with Ruth. Her smile always made Ruth smile. Since the stay at home order was mandated by our Governor, Lia doesn’t go anywhere. She doesn’t understand why we can’t go visit Ruth or why her little friends can’t come over to play. After seeing Ruth sitting on her porch looking sad, Alexandra (Lia’s mommy) came up with an idea. So let’s get on with Friday Story Time by Lia.

Friday Story Time by Lia

When GGmama and I bake we would always visit our neighbor and bring her some cookies. I put some of my cookies in a special little box at Christmas time and she loved them. She lives alone so it’s a nice way to cheer her up.

For her birthday I gave her some pretty soap that mommy and GGmama made. One was in the shape of a butterfly, my favorite! But one day mama said we can’t cross the road and I didn’t know why. Ruth was over there and I’m over here, why can’t I go visit her? She tried to explain if my friends come over or we go visit any of them I might get sick. So until the virus is all gone, I can’t play or visit with my friends.

When my mommy saw Ruth sitting on her porch all by herself she had a great idea. Mama got the paint and glitter out and I knew what was next. She let me pick out my favorite colors and we got ready to make a sign for Ruth to see from our driveway!

One sign said, “Hi Ruth” and we painted hearts on another big piece of heavy paper.

When we saw Ruth coming back from getting her mail, I ran out to the end of our driveway and held up the sign! She was so happy to see the sign and me!

I’ll be baking cookies later today and we are going to make an Easter basket for Ruth with some of my cookies. Mama will put them on her porch and call her to come out. I know she will be so happy to see the cookies!

But you want to know the cool part of this? Of course mama was taking lots of pictures (she always does that!) and she posted them on a FB page where everyone shares hearts to brighten the day. In 12 hours her post with me and my signs got over 14,000 hits! By that evening there were over 19,000 hits, 500 comments and 259 people shared the post. If that wasn’t enough excitement GGmama sent the picture to our local news and my story made it on two different TV stations! I’m so glad I made the signs for my neighbor to see, we all can help spread a little love and smiles by sharing our hearts to others.

I can’t even have my little friend come visit and play in my bouncy bounce. But GGpapa set it up the other day and I invited a few of my stuffed animals to jump with me! I even learned how to do a somersault! It’s not perfect but I’ll get it down in no time!

I’m so sad that I can’t visit my friends but I will continue to draw chalk hearts in the driveway, wave to my neighbors and hold the sign up to say hi to Ruth. When this is all over and I can visit again I’m going to fill up my wagon and deliver cookies to all my friends that I have only been able to wave to!