Election Day
By Belinda
We sat around the supper table eating pork chops simmered in mushroom soup. Bowls of rice, and vegetables of orange, yellow and shades of green passed from hand to hand, and the cares of the day and a week almost done, fell from our shoulders as we caught up with one another's news.
Of course we wondered how the election results would pan out in Ontario where today was voting day. I had voted on my way home, and, as I entered the rural church building that was the voting site, I was seized with a sense of solemnity and privilege hard won; the right to choose.
Over supper we chatted about how the voting stations were changed from the norm in several places for this election. Brenda said that originally, the college where she works had been designated, but later there was a change of plans the votes had to be cast elsewhere.. Somehow the message didn't get through to everyone that the voting was to take place in a different location and all day people showed up at the college to vote. One woman got loud and angry when Brenda informed her that the site had changed. Her husband had to calm his wife down by reminding her that she was shouting at the wrong person.
Tippy piped up then with a story of her own. She was in the school office waiting for Brenda to come and pick her up from school. She had damaged the soft tissue on her hand and a lump had emerged at the base of her pinky finger. She thinks it was caused by drawing too long and holding her pencil too intensely but the lump scared her and she had called Brenda sobbing. This is our oceanically emotional granddaughter remember! :)
While she was waiting for her mom, an old woman came to the school to vote, but the site had been moved to the church where I voted later in the day. Strangely, she sat down in the school office and began to chat with the children who were sitting there.
The woman asked the children if they believed in ghosts and told them she did! She said that ever since her husband died she had noticed strange happenings in her house. "I will put a pot on the table," she said, "and later it will be gone. Then I come back later and it's back again."
Tippy added, "She said the same thing happens with her car keys," which made us all laugh, and all at the same moment we had the same thought--the "ghost" was a great story but it might not be the one losing things around the house!
I still don't know the election results. Some voted angry at being inconvenienced, some were confused about where to vote, but all who did, engaged in a process that we hope will make a difference.
P.S. This is our friend Anne leaving for home in her beautiful Made in Italy, genuine Fedora. She wins the prize for flair and style!
We sat around the supper table eating pork chops simmered in mushroom soup. Bowls of rice, and vegetables of orange, yellow and shades of green passed from hand to hand, and the cares of the day and a week almost done, fell from our shoulders as we caught up with one another's news.
Of course we wondered how the election results would pan out in Ontario where today was voting day. I had voted on my way home, and, as I entered the rural church building that was the voting site, I was seized with a sense of solemnity and privilege hard won; the right to choose.
Over supper we chatted about how the voting stations were changed from the norm in several places for this election. Brenda said that originally, the college where she works had been designated, but later there was a change of plans the votes had to be cast elsewhere.. Somehow the message didn't get through to everyone that the voting was to take place in a different location and all day people showed up at the college to vote. One woman got loud and angry when Brenda informed her that the site had changed. Her husband had to calm his wife down by reminding her that she was shouting at the wrong person.
Tippy piped up then with a story of her own. She was in the school office waiting for Brenda to come and pick her up from school. She had damaged the soft tissue on her hand and a lump had emerged at the base of her pinky finger. She thinks it was caused by drawing too long and holding her pencil too intensely but the lump scared her and she had called Brenda sobbing. This is our oceanically emotional granddaughter remember! :)
While she was waiting for her mom, an old woman came to the school to vote, but the site had been moved to the church where I voted later in the day. Strangely, she sat down in the school office and began to chat with the children who were sitting there.
The woman asked the children if they believed in ghosts and told them she did! She said that ever since her husband died she had noticed strange happenings in her house. "I will put a pot on the table," she said, "and later it will be gone. Then I come back later and it's back again."
Tippy added, "She said the same thing happens with her car keys," which made us all laugh, and all at the same moment we had the same thought--the "ghost" was a great story but it might not be the one losing things around the house!
I still don't know the election results. Some voted angry at being inconvenienced, some were confused about where to vote, but all who did, engaged in a process that we hope will make a difference.
P.S. This is our friend Anne leaving for home in her beautiful Made in Italy, genuine Fedora. She wins the prize for flair and style!
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