MAKING A NEW BEACH FRIEND

My friend and I are at the beach, minding our own business, when a stout older woman makes a beeline to us.  I look up, make eye contact, and she starts talking to us as if she knows us.  (She does not.)

She puts her blanket and her shoes down and says, "I'm going to spread out here with you."

Um. Okay.  I guess.

She is pleasant enough, tells us some story about her daughter needing to take the dog to the car, and that she should be easy for her daughter to find because she is wearing a yellow shirt.  She leaves her belongings and trots down to the water.

My friend and I look at the blanket and shoes then to the old lady who is ankle-deep in the waves.  We both shrug.

"Hey, YOU made eye contact with her," my friend laughs.

"I ... did nnnnnnnn... Yeah, I did."

After fifteen minutes or so, we start to get worried.  It's 97 degrees out, and, if this woman's daughter has a dog in the car, that means she is choosing between her mother and her pet, neither a good choice for an adult child and an animal lover.

This time, it is my friend who makes contact.  She ambles down to the water and begins a conversation with the lady.  After a few minutes, I wander down and join in.  Turns out this lovely woman is 90 years young, used to be a secretary at an elementary school, lives in Syracuse but summers in Kennebunkport, and is one of the nicest people I've ever encountered.  Plus, her perfume is lovely and she smells fabulous.  You know how at the beach you can smell coconut in everyone's suntan lotion?  This woman's flowery scent drifts across the sand toward me like a beautiful beach rose.

My friend and I need to pack up (fold our chairs and pick up our bags -- we travel light) and get back to the car, so we walk the older woman over to the stairs, which are accessible only over some treacherous rocks.  We help her, guiding her to the easiest perches.  We are halfway up the rocky outcropping when the daughter shows up.

"Mom, I've been waving to you from the stairs.  I have the car running."

While this is wonderful that there will be an air-conditioned car to greet our new friend, it is a little crazy that the daughter thought her mother could manage by herself up the labyrinth of granite.  They are both grateful for our help, and we bid our new pal a good afternoon. 

Truly, God bless her.  May we all be so lucky still to be walking the beach and putting our feet in the surf at 90 years old.