June 4, 2001
CYBERCOLUMN:
Love your neighbor as yourself?
___By Donna Van Cleve
___"Aw, man! You go get it!"
___"Are you crazy? I didn’t hit the ball over there--you did. You have to get it!"
___"Well you’re the one who missed it!"
___"I’ll stand guard for you."
___"Do you see her anywhere?"
___The boy and girl stood in the alley between the Baptist church and the small whitehouse where Mrs. Thomas lived. The ball sat amidst a jungle of plants in the elderly woman’s back yard. Just as the boy stepped between the shrubs bordering the property, Mrs. Thomas stepped out of her back door and started yelling.
DONNA VAN CLEVE
___The two youngsters bolted back across the alley and around the church, hearts pounding.
___Mrs. Thomas walked over to the ball, picked it up and carried it inside her house.
___"Doggone it! There goes another one," the girl said dejectedly.
___Mrs. Thomas had been a thorn in the side of the church for many years. She always kept any ball that accidentally happened to land in her back yard, hit by church members playing on the grounds next door. No telling how many balls the church had lost to her over the years.
___She seemed to hate the church and everything that went on there. No one really knew why. On several particular Sundays, unwary souls who happened to park in front of her house came out of the church service to find the interior of their cars drenched after Mrs. Thomas took a hose to the open windows. A deacon installed "No Parking" signs in front of her house to prevent that from happening again.
___Mrs. Thomas supported herself as a seamstress working out of her home. When the same young lady that lost a ball earlier was in the eighth grade, she had to go to Mrs. Thomas’s house to be fitted for a cheerleading uniform. She was scared to meet her in person, but remembers being surprised that she had to look down at Mrs. Thomas, who was so small. From across the alley, she always seemed so much larger and more intimidating.
___But the biggest shock was that Mrs. Thomas was personable and even had a sense of humor. The young girl could not believe this was the same woman who called all the kids to shake in fear when a ball ventured onto her property.
___But in all the years of Mrs. Thomas’s antagonism toward the Baptist church, the members never responded in anger to her. Whenever there was a fellowship dinner, someone always would take her a plate. Others would take her shopping out of town or to doctor visits. Members checked on her regularly, since she was widowed and lived by herself.
___One Sunday morning not too long before Mrs. Thomas passed away, a small miracle occurred in the church. There on the altar table in front of the pulpit where big, beautiful flower arrangements were usually displayed in memory or honor of someone, a simple mayonnaise jar filled with homegrown flowers had been placed. Faces in the congregation beamed with joy when the pastor told them the flowers were from Mrs. Thomas next door.
___Tears filled the piano player’s eyes as she smiled, remembering so many years ago the fear she felt in the alley that day, and the pleasant surprise later in getting to know Mrs. Thomas.
___It is said that when folks were taking care of Mrs. Thomas’s things after she passed away, a closet was found containing an assortment of balls.
___But nobody seemed to mind any more.
___Donna Van Cleve is director of the public library in Cotulla, a writer, wife, mother and member of First Baptist Church in Cotulla, where she is pianist.
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