Southern Comfort

365/8

Today’s highlight is the southern gentility I’ve experience on a daily basis from complete strangers.  We’ve been here 8 years and it still surprises me.  Today I had a Dr.’s appointment.  I pulled in to a parking spot next to an elderly couple who had also just arrived.  I could tell they were watching me, so I looked up and they smiled at me.  I smiled back – it was almost like they were waiting for me to notice them so that they could smile at me.

Inside the Dr.’s office I had prepared a list of questions for my Dr.  Immediately upon coming into my examining room, he was already apologizing for his rudeness in keeping me waiting (it wasn’t long at all).  Once I told him I hadn’t noticed his delay since I was preparing a list of questions for him he immediately set aside his paperwork, sat down, crossed his legs and gave me his undivided attention .  He answered each and every question, as non-sensical as it may have seemed to him, thoroughly and to my satisfaction.  He didn’t make me feel stupid, rushed or unimportant.  He is absolutely worth his weight in gold!  He is like nobody I’ve ever had the misfortune of encountering from my home state.  I REALLY like my Dr. and that’s saying a lot for me since I have a general mistrust of Dr’s. (born from above mentioned home state experience).

  On my way out, I lost my car.  I had a giant air bubble in my brain and I didn’t understand why my car wasn’t where I parked it.  An elderly lady seated on a bench watching me giggled to herself and told me, “sweetie, it’ll be ok.  I’ve lost my car AND my husband somewhere in this parking lot!”  She didn’t seem worried, she was patiently sitting on the bench waiting for him to find her.

I finally found my car.  Two levels down from where I thought I’d left it.  And there they were, the elderly couple who greeted me with a smile upon my arrival, smiled and waved me farewell.