I knew you were, she said
As I was leaving Shoppers Drug mart today, an elderly lady with a cane asked if I’d help her out the door. She said it was silly, but someone had left a large, black dog without a leash outside the store.
I’m sure it was a well-trained dog as it sat with just enough of his front paws inside the automatic door to keep it open. The lady took my arm and I held her on my left side as I pushed the dog aside with my right foot.
Outside the door, she told me how silly it might seem to be afraid of just a dog, but she had been waiting for over a year for a hip replacement. She feared the dog would jump on her and she’d break her other hip. After all, she was 81 and alone and didn’t need that aggravation.
I walked with her the few steps to the corner and pushed the walk light to cross 4th Avenue. She turned to me and said, “I don’t celebrate Christmas, you know.”
I replied, “that’s okay, neither do I really.”
“Are you a Jehovah?” she asked. There it was - the conversion for salvation. She nattered quickly and invited me to join her at the new Kingdom Hall in our neighbourhood.
I politely thanked her but told her no thank you. Always deferring to my elders, I somehow felt compelled to add, “I think there’s one major conflict with your teachings that wouldn’t allow me to join you.”
“I knew you were gay as soon as I saw you in the store,” she said. “I knew you would be polite and help me past that dog.”
I didn’t say anything but she continued, “our congregation looks at all people regardless of their sexuality. That whole passage about ‘man lying down with man’ has been misinterpreted for centuries,” she added.
Without a pause, she turned and hobbled across the street saying, “this old lady is going downtown.” And she left me staring at her as she rushed to get on the bus.
Am I as invisible as I think I am? Obviously not, but it still surprises me when these kind of things happen to me.
My point? I stumbled across this “who is/who isn’t” questionnaire. They might have called it, “who cares/who cares enough less?”
But in fairness to you reading this entry, if you must test your gaydar to determine who is and who isn’t, go here.
Last 5 posts in JOURNAL
- Time to mark your calendar - November 25th, 2008
- Today I began a new journey - November 19th, 2008
- A day to reflect - November 11th, 2008
- Siblings together over five decades - November 8th, 2008
- 102 Canadian women will die this week - October 3rd, 2008