Caring Home was organizing a charity food and fun fair for fundraising at Long Ha Street. LED lighted up the entire streets with dozens of booths set up for the events. In the middle of the street, a circular stage was set up for dance performances. The stage also acts as a divider separated the food sections at its’ right with the games sections at its’ left. A man in red was standing on stage introducing the highlights of the night as he spoke using a loudspeaker. A crown was giving away free balloons to children by the side of the stage. The entire street was occupied with visitors from all ages and races, as everyone is generous when comes to charity.
An old lady with white shinny hair was seen walking down the street along the food section, accompanied by a woman in her fifty’s. They were all smiles as they walked hand-in-hand among the crowd. Virginia could not help to stare at them as they looked so humble and kind. She approached them with a box of muffin cakes.
‘Excuse me, would you like some muffin cakes?’ she asked politely.
They stopped and smiled at her. The younger woman was about to speak but she stopped when the old lady touched her hand lightly. She turned and looked at the old lady with great respect. The old lady looked at Virginia with a twinkle in her eyes. She had an immediate liking toward this girl, although this was the first time they met. The way she smiled at Virginia gave a sense of warmness to Virginia. Virginia felt like she was being looked at by her own grandmother.
‘How much is it, dear?’ the old lady asked.
‘Oh,’ Virginia slightly staggered as she was lost in her thought and sensation felt toward this old lady in front, ’10 dollar a box. There are 4 muffin cakes in each box.’ She turned and take up another box on a table in front of her booth. ‘You can either choose a box of 4 chocolate muffin or blueberry muffin or a mixed box that consisted of 2 chocolate muffin and 2 blueberry muffin.’
The old lady listened patiently to her explanation, then spoke softly, ‘I’ll take 2 boxes of chocolates and 2 boxes of blueberries’.’
Virginia hurried packed 4 boxes into a big carrier bag and hand over to the woman as she was holding out the coupon to her.
‘Thank you for your kindness,’ Virginia thanked them as she put the coupon inside the charity donation box place which was on top of the table.
Each booth had a transparent donation box on its tables. The visitors were to buy a coupon at the ticketing counter and used it as money when buying food or play games at booths.
As she dropped the coupon inside the box, she realized the woman had given her an extra coupon. She turned and saw that they were nowhere near to be seen. She sighed. She blamed herself for didn’t check on the coupon. It was a mistake that she must not have done. She hit her head lightly with her right hand and wondered what had got into her that she would make such a silly mistake. So unforgivable.
‘Why are you hitting yourself,’ a giggle was heard coming behind her. Virginia turned and saw Sister Cecelia standing behind her. She told Sister of what happened and blamed herself for overcharging the kind old lady.
Sister Cecelia gave her a pat on the shoulder, ‘no problem, I’m sure they give extra in purpose.’
Virginia looked at Sister Cecelia unbelievable, ‘in purpose? What do you mean, Sister? Do you know who they are?’
Sister Cecelia smiled at her, throw her a sentence, ‘you’ll know soon,’ and then walked to the next booth.
Virginia was at a loss of speech. They were indeed very kind ladies, she thought to herself, no wonder she felt such warmness from them just now. They were like living angels.
For the rest of the night, she continued to serve visitors that came to her booths. Her muffin cakes were selling like hotcakes, although they were cold cakes by now! Her booth was forced to close before the end of the event due to that. She brought the donation box back to the organizing booth and directly walked to Sister Cecelia. Sister Cecelia had her back on Virginia as she was attending to some other people resting inside the booth. As she walked closer, Virginia saw that Sister Cecelia was talking to the old lady and woman who visited her booth earlier.
‘My, my, the sweetie is here,’ said the old lady upon spotted Virginia walking toward them.
Sister Cecelia turned and smiled. She took over Virginia’s box and place it together with other boxes at a nearby table. There were two volunteers counting all the collected coupons.
‘Hello, I’m sorry I didn’t realize you have given me an extra coupon just now,’ Virginia apologized, she tucked her hand into her pocket and pull out a book of coupons. She opened the book and was about to tear out the coupon as a return to them.
‘No, you don’t,’ said the woman in her fifty’s, ‘I intentionally gave you more, just as I did to all the other booths that we had visited.’
Virginia gasped in shock. Sister Cecelia embrace her lightly by her shoulder and said, ‘Well, they are old-time volunteers at Caring Home. I’m surprised that you haven’t met them before.’
Virginia looked at Sister and shook her head.
‘Then let me introduce. This is Virginia, she a new volunteer that just joined us last month,’ Sister Cecelia said as she turned to both the ladies, she pointed to the old lady and continued, ‘this is Agnes, over here everyone calls her Grandma Agnes as she is the oldest volunteer we have for years. Can you guess her age?’ she asked Virginia.
Virginia looked at Agnes, despite her shinning white hair, her face still remained some significant youth look, and her smile… ah… melted anyone’s heart. She was such a darling!
‘I think around ’70s?’ Virginia guessed.
The trio broke into laughter.
‘No?’ Virginia hold up both hands in front of her chest and apologized, ‘oh I’m sorry, you must have been younger.’
Upon hearing this, the trio gave out an even hearty laugh. The old lady even had tears rolling in her eyes as she was laughing too hard.
Sister Cecelia shook her hand while catching her breath, ‘no, my dear. She is in her mid-eighty.’
‘What?!’ exclaimed Virginia, this old lady… but she did not look her age!
‘That’s why over here, everyone calls her Grandma Agnes, and you should too,’ finally Sister stopped laughing and continued with the introduction. ‘And this is her daughter-in-law, Natalie.’
‘How old are you, my dear? If you don’t mind me asking,’ asked Agnes.
‘Sure I don’t mind. I am 26 years old, Grandma Agnes,’ Virginia answered.
‘Oh my, my… you don’t look your age too,’ said Grandma Agnes again with a twinkle in her eyes.
‘I thought you are in your early twenty’s,’ said Natalie.
‘It’s because she is a sunflower,’ said Sister Cecelia.
‘Sunflower?’ both Virginia and Agnes asked at the same time then burst into laughter as they spoke together.
‘See, she is always so happy, isn’t she just like a sunflower?’ answered Sister Cecelia as she looked at Virginia proudly.
Both Agnes and Natalie nodded agreeing to that while Virginia giggling happily to be labeled as a sunflower that brings happiness to all.
