Strangers No More

This is the time of year when I change the batteries in my four smoke detectors. 

Changing batteries is a task that is not difficult, but I’m not a fan of climbing on a ladder and trying to balance myself while I struggle to replace the batteries. Every year I have taken care of this simple chore myself … Until this year. This year, as I stood on the ladder looking up at the smoke detector on the ceiling and trying to reattach it to the short cable (my smoke detectors are all hard-wired into the house's electrical system, with battery back-up), I decided that I wasn’t comfortable doing this. If I fell, there would be no one in the house to help me. That was a risk I wasn't prepared to take.

So I decided to ask for help, something not easy for me, or for most people, to do. I put a message on NextDoor to see if somebody would change the batteries for me. I had new batteries, and I have a stepladder. All I needed was somebody to actually change the batteries.

I quickly got a response from a few people offering to help. I certainly wouldn’t have minded paying someone a reasonable amount for this service. But then I got a response from a woman named Amy who said she would change the batteries at no charge. What a nice surprise that was!

I got in touch with her, and she and one of her daughters, who is learning to drive, soon arrived at my house. I had asked her to give me a minute to get my dogs into the backyard before I let the people into the house, as my dogs get overly excited when we get company. But she said not to worry about it, because she has a couple of very excitable dogs as well.

She quickly replaced the batteries and reattached one of the smoke detectors. Somehow we started talking about photography, she asked what I like to photograph, and I replied that my most favorite subjects are African wildlife. So I showed my guests my favorite leopard photo, as well as one of elephants and a cheetah peering into the back of our safari vehicle, all of the photos hanging on a wall in my office.

She said I should hold onto her phone number in case I need help with any other small things around the house. She has five teens and young adults living in her house, and either she or one of them would be happy to help. I think she is doing a great job of raising kind young adults. When she introduced her daughter to me, the teen quickly reached out to shake my hand.

Amy is setting a great example for her children how to be a good person and to help people, even strangers, with no expectation of anything in return.

I texted Amy my thanks (I also thanked her a couple of times while she was here). She replied that "We are ... neighbors, and we aren't strangers any more. It just seemed silly to have to pay someone for something so quick! And we got to see photos of leopards and elephants and those big cat eyes, which made my day." The cat eyes belonged to a cheetah sitting on the spare tire and peering into the safari vehicle in which I was riding.

In a world so filled with hate, greed and selfishness, it did my old heart good to see that there are people who are willing to help others.