An Interaction at Rita’s

Day 25 of 31

Tonight after a long day with an elderly relative, my husband suggested we go to Rita’s. We were both tired, overwhelmed, and it is my spring break, so it didn’t take me more than one second to agree that it was a good idea to get a Gelati. Please don’t tell Jay. He is my accountability coach at the gym.

Several cars pulled into the parking lot at once. My husband and I walked across the lot, got in line and we both noticed a mom and her 2 children following us. They lined up right behind us along the curb. The line was pretty long, especially considering that it was cold and windy. My husband turned to the mom and told her that she should go ahead of us. She said, no at first and my husband pointed out that their car pulled in before ours and we are better at waiting since we are adults and she had kids with her. She thanked us and went ahead of us.

We began looking at the ice cream choices and her son, probably about 7 years old, told us that we could go ahead of them. I don’t think he heard us talking to his mom prior to that.

I said, “No, it’s all good. You go ahead of us.” He then came over to me and snuggled up to me and then hugged me. I instinctively side-hugged him back and said, “Oh, hi friend.”

My husband smiled at the interaction and whispered, “He must sense you are a teacher.”

We continued to wait, and after the little boy received his gummy bear sundae in a cup, the server asked if he wanted whipped cream. He said he did not like whipped cream but he did ask for a cherry on top. The server smiled, took the sundae and returned with 3 cherries all on the side.

As the boy’s mom paid for the ice cream he picked up one of the cherries, carefully placed it on the top of his ice cream, turned to me and said, “I like to have the cherry on the top. It tastes better there. ”

I smiled and responded, “I agree. It’s a good choice to put at least one of those on the top.” He shook his head yes and smiled.

As we drove home I was thinking how sweet it is that kids just randomly hug adults when they are happy about something. Now, I know that it would be weird if adults hugged strangers, especially in an ice cream line, but maybe that would make our world just a little bit better.

My little friend in the Rita’s line helped me smile at the end of a long day.