リハビリ散歩が終わって、いつも通り裏口から入ると、靴箱の上のショッピングバッグに目が止まり何だろうと持ち上げるとずっしり重く、中を見ると、アルミホイルに包まれたケーキのようなものでした。夫はヨーグルトなどを作る時によく室温で放置するため家族の誰にも触らせないように袋を被せたりしているのでその類かもしれないと思って聞くと自分ではない、自分も何だろうと思ってたと言います。
とにかく、中に入って開けてみるとそれは１ローフのバナナケーキでしたが、誰からか名前がどこにもありません。心当たりは先日バレンタインデーの日に小さい贈り物をお隣のドアのところに置いたので、そのお礼かなということ。お隣は９０歳以上になるアイリッシュ系のご夫婦です。この数年は特に親しくお付き合いをしているわけではありませんが、きっと奥様のMさんが私たちのために焼いてくださったのだと思います。子供さんたちが頻繁に訪ねてきているのが車が止まっているので分かりますが、ご夫婦もそれぞれ車を運転してお出かけになっています。窓越しに見る姿はお歳を感じますが、向こうも私たちを見て色々感じているに違いありません。
美味しいホームメイドケーキは娘がブランチを約束していた友達にも少しお裾分けしました。春らしいカードを日本から買ってきたのでお礼を書いてお隣に届けることにしました。
When I came into the house from the side door of the garage after coming back from my rehabilitation walk, I noticed a shopping bag on the shelf of shoes. It was not light and something wrapped in aluminum foil was inside. My husband often makes homemade yogurt by himself and does not want anybody to touch it by putting the shopping bag upside down in the middle of making it, so I thought it was his, but he said it was not and he was also wondering what it was.
Anyhow, I opened it in the kitchen. It was a loaf of home-made banana cake but there was no name anywhere. My only idea was that it was a thank you gift from our next door neighbors for whom we put a small Valentine's gift at their front door. An Irish couple who are more than 90 years old are living next door. We don't communicate with each other very much these years, but maybe the old lady, M, baked the cake for us and put it there. I often saw a car parked in front of their house that shows their children coming to see the couple. I also see the couple drive their car. When I see them through our window, they look old these days, and I am relieved they are well. Probably they are also looking at us from their window and feeling something.
We decided to share the cake to the person whom my daughter was going to meet on that day. Since I have a nice spring card from Japan, I wrote a thank you message for them on it.
