My Secret Admirer

I have many children living around me in my neighborhood. There are two sweet little girls living directly across the street; a brother and sister that live next door to my right; and 6 or 8 children in the house catty-corner from me.

A couple of weeks back when it was closer to Valentine's Day, I found in my letter box a Valentine's Card drawn in a child's hand with no name, no signature. It was a pretty little card: a red heart pasted on a blue piece of paper.

I kept the card and thought no more about it. But yesterday I found this in my letter box:

It was folded like a card: the picture at the top was the front of the card and the bottom was the inside greeting. At first I had a hard time deciphering exactly what it said, but finally here's how I translated it:

HAPPY SPRING DAY

ROSES ARE RED

VIOLETS ARE BLUE

HAVE GOOD DAY

The drawing of three different kinds of flowers and the smiley face with legs helped me translate it and the fact that I received it yesterday when it reached into the 70s.

The address of the catty-corner house with the many children was at the bottom of the card (I've blotted the address out). Ah, now I knew where the card came from!



Let me tell you a little about the family and the children that live in the house diagonally across the street. They are Afghanis. They have lived there upstairs and down for 3-4 years. The fathers (who are brothers) of the children work driving private limos. The mothers are at home taking care of the children who range in age from, oh let's say three, to 10 or 11 years of age.

The women dress in traditional clothing, pants, overdress, and head and foot coverings. The head coverings are light scarves called chadaar.



They drive the kids to school in SUVs. They do the food shopping. They sit on the porch when the kids are out playing. They wave at me and exchange a sentence or two. I don't think they speak English very well. I always wave and yell "Hi!" when I see them.

They don't speak to my husband and if their scarf has fallen from their head, they immediately adjust it when my husband is near.

The men speak to me at great length. They speak English pretty well as you might expect since they go out to work. When they are driving the limo they wear a Western suit and tie. They are clean-shaven except for a mustache.

In the summer a couple of seasons ago, Barac (I'm not sure how to spell his name) brought me a cucumber that he had grown in his back yard.

Now about the children. I have spoken to them and they all except for the very young ones who aren't in school yet, speak English. They have been in my house and always stop at my house for Halloween. Yes Halloween! They all run up to the door and, tripping over each other, ring my bell and yell "TRICK OR TREAT!" The mother stands back, partially hidden by my evergreen tree, while the kids pick candies from a BIG bowl I bring out.

So who made the card? Did the oldest sister help one of the young ones (a kindergartner) write the card? What made them want to send me cards and express such loving thoughts?

Well I will go across the street to the house and ring the doorbell. I know no one will answer the door directly. One of the kids will come to the window next to the porch and I will say... What will I say? Should I wait til I see the oldest girl and ask her? I don't know. Should I just say "Thank you"? Should I buy them gifts? Nothing really expensive...

I went across the street and rang the bell. I yelled out to identify myself and the oldest girl, Maria, came to the door. All the other kids were pushing close to her, standing next to her and behind her. When I asked who sent the card, they all admitted it, smiling and laughing.

I gave them a box filled with things I had bought. Not very expensive things: stickers, markers, sticky notes, a bag of gum drop candy, two writing journals. They accepted the gift and I said "Thank you, thank you for the card." The mothers were standing in the background and they were smiling too.

theteach