She's Not Called The Dowager Duchess For Nothing

NO PHYSICAL SIMILARITIES... AND YET.

I'm heading off to bed, but thought I'd share the wonderful news that The Dowager Duchess is quite well, thank you.

Here is the message received a short time ago from an old childhood friend named Bonnie:

"Good news. Mom is fine. Howie walked up the 16 flights (what a guy). He bought her some groceries. She wants to stay. I'm sitting here crying. I'm so grateful to Howie. I feel like we owe him our lives. He is a big guy. Now we can relax. I've done my Mitzvah for the day. Catch you later."

Bonnie and I were schoolmates from the age of 10 to 17. They were very big schools and we were in different classes. We didn't see each other often after fifth grade, but she was always one of those kind, sweet, and decent human beings. I haven't seen her in more than 40 years. We reconnected on Facebook a few years ago. She is still a kind, sweet, and decent human being.

Bonnie lives with her family in Southern California. She saw my post on Facebook about my inability to reach my mother. She went into action. I don't know Howie. He doesn't (well, didn't) know my mother. But Bonnie contacted him and he, as she described above, walked up 16 flights of stairs to make sure my mother was alright and to let her know we were thinking about her and what we thought her options were (go to the shelter, go to her sister, go to her friend).

In true form, The Dowager Duchess had another option. Stay put. I hope the power comes on soon. I hope cell phone service returns. I hope to see her smiling face on Facebook.

But, right now, I know Jerry and I will sleep much better tonight and I expect the Dowager Duchess will, too. I'm sure it's comforting to know people care about her. I 'm sure she was grateful for the message that we've been trying to reach her and I'm sure she was shocked by the efforts this complete stranger made on her behalf.

It's certainly reassuring to me to know there are such kind people in this world.