The Honeydews Went Flying and a Band of Kind Older Women Rushed to the Aid
One weekend morning, I joined my mother to the local market for our regular produce shopping. Mum was still looking around when I volunteered to take the groceries back to the car, which was packed into a little red trolley. It was like a magical bag – quite a small thing, but it was astonishing how much you could load it up. That's what we believed.
With the cart straining under the load of an packed load of groceries, my mum rested a carton of sweet melons on top. She cautioned me to be careful getting it back to the car.
All was going well as I weaved my way through the throngs of shoppers and out of the market. But as I was navigating the hectic main intersection into the market, the trolley became lodged on the road divider in the middle of the road, and the crate of melons fell to the pavement. They went flying, dramatically rolling out towards pedestrians and stationary cars.
As the pedestrian signal changed from green to stop, I was shocked, speechless, trying to figure out how I was going to retrieve the melons rolling in six different directions.
Out of nowhere, a group of several older women came to my assistance. Silver-haired, head scarves and one with a walking stick – they appeared as if they had emerged of the same nesting doll. They weren’t deterred by the cars creeping their way towards us. Completely brave, they just held up their hands to halt the traffic, in both directions. They collected all the melons for me, not missing a single one, as I repaired the box to contain them.
I expressed gratitude to them and they remained silent, just grinned and gestured me farewell. I never consumed the melons – I was never a real fan of honeydew melon – but I tell this story all the time because I love it so much.
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