My Neighbors and the Massage

I've got some of the nicest neighbors you could find anywhere and one family who moved here only a few years ago has become very close to me. They are Chinese but immigrated from Viet Nam more than 25 years ago. The mother and father speak halting English so it's difficult for me to converse with them but their daughters (aged 23 and 31) have practically adopted me. A few times a month they come together for a visit and we talk and laugh for hours...ignoring the generation gap.

I broke my foot last year and those two young ladies (1 in school and 1 working) would visit me almost every day and massage my poor broken foot with some magical Chinese oil. Their kindness humbled me. Other neighbors have shown kindness and caring in different ways but the personal act of massaging my foot made a strong impression on me. Being Chinese, these ladies have grown up in an oriental culture where the young still nurture the old. My own daughters also tended to my needs at that time but they stopped short of the "massage".

My upbringing was not a loving, touching one and I partially passed that on to my own children. It wasn't until my grandchildren were born that I became more touchable. In fact, I couldn't keep my hands off them! In the main, our society teaches us to keep our hands to ourselves so we tend to repress our need to hug and be hugged. Well, I've gotten older and wiser and now hug just about anyone. I'm not so sure I want to massage their feet, though.