Reflections On The Rewards Of Rural Living

I was awake at 4:12 a.m., this morning, happily listening to the rain pattering on my roof. It occurred to me that people living in condos or apartments rarely, if ever, have that pleasure. I suppose those who live in the house of pent do, but not the commoners below. I pity those who don't have patter in their lives, they're missing one of life's little gifts. I then drifted back to sleep, leaving behind the hour of enlightenment.

It's 9 a.m. now and I'm still reflecting on the rewards of rural living (not to suggest that it doesn't rain on the roofs of city dwellers). Yesterday was a day that I'll remember for a long time to come. My son, Julian, has been eagerly awaiting news from Dalhousie University as to whether he would be receiving a scholarship. Every day we've been going to our local post office, pestering post mistress Sylvia to see if anything had arrived. Yesterday was no exception, we even arrived before the mail had been sorted. Late for an appointment in town, we left before the mail had been completely sorted, with no news of any kind.

We arrived home in Cambridge-Narrows after the post office had closed so there was no chance of any groundbreaking developments. A little disappointed, we went into our house and listened to our voice messages from earlier in the day.

"It's Sylvia, I think that I might have the thing that Julian was looking for..."

Wow, that's impressive. How often does the Canada Post make personal calls? Sylvia is more than the post mistress, she's a friend, and a great friend at that! Now we were in a real quandry...desperate to get the letter, but too polite to beg Sylvia to open up the post office after hours. That's what we wanted to do but we thought the better of it. We resigned ourselves to suffering through the evening and waiting until morning. Wendy had hatched a plan whereby we'd get the letter at 9:00:01 a.m. the following morning and Julian would call us from school. Our thoughts then drifted back toward our supper plans.

Knock, knock, knock...patters on our door.

Who would be at our door at 6 p.m, suppertime....perhaps the Jehovah's!? Even better, it was Sylvia. Knowing how much we were anticipating this letter, she went back to the post office and hand delivered the letter to Julian. Regardless of what news the letter contained, this act of kindness and thoughtfulness is one example of why we continue to live in Cambridge-Narrows....the people. People like Sylvia.

Julian opened the letter nervously. Sadly, I didn't have my camera at the ready to capture his expression. I've recreated it below...





Dalhousie University has offered him a $34 000 scholarship. He'll be going there in the autumn and living in residence. I hope that he never forgets the sound of raindrops on his rooftop.