Her Name is Meg

Her name is Meg. Meg Ranglon. She is seen now weeding her front yard in Chicago. Near the front walk, she has found a patch of weeds in her lawn and she is dutifully removing them. 

Behind her is a small yard. A center walkway goes from the public sidewalk to the front porch steps – five of them up to a wide porch embracing the full width of her modest clapboard frame home.

The house is one and a half storey with a central window on the second floor looking out over the front porch roof. On the first floor are one window to each side of the front door, one presumably her living room window, the other? Perhaps a den or a first floor bedroom.

A few flowers adorn the front yard near the porch steps. Bushes – perhaps low growing ewes? – frame the porch’s lattice work which covers from view the open space beneath the porch. The image is tidy. All except the weeds Meg is working on.

She is thinking about those weeds. Growing a lawn in a city neighborhood is not easy. Weeds, yes; grass no. It gets snow and salt shoveled on it for 7 months of the year; the public and dogs trample it if it is close to the walk. So other options?

Meg is thinking of planting flowers, small beds to mark the corner of her walkway with the public sidewalk. No; that wouldn’t work. Too much wayward feet and snow shoveling to protect any kind of planting. Maybe a bush? Or an Urn with evergreens planted in them for the winter and flowers for the growing season? Ah, that sounds like a nice solution.

But who would do the work? Meg is 80 (that number is whispered only to a few close friends!) and she is just a mite of a thing, barely 95 pounds. Weeding is OK; so is pushing a mower on level ground; but hauling cement urns? Or planting them with bushes once each year and then removing them and replacing them with flowers? Seem like heavy work.

She’ll ask her grocer down the block if he knows someone who could help her for a modest fee. Jake is a good guy and known Meg for 7 years now. Helpful and smiley most of the times. Yes, Meg will ask Jake.

So her plans firm up. The weeds now gone Meg is carrying the plastic bag of weed pullings to the rear yard and the garbage can. Meg’s house is a typical urban lot, only 28 feet wide. There is a gangway walk between her home and the house next door, only three and half feet separate them. On the other side Meg is lucky. An empty lot has been there for years with large old trees shading adjacent buildings. So she has a grassy edged walkway to the rear of her yard. She rarely uses the other gangway – too spooky!

Inside her home – up a back porch of 6 steps to a small landing providing little maneuvering space in front of the rear door, Meg passes through the service porch and then into the kitchen. Old with high ceilings and a very dated layout of appliances and sink and cabinets. A sole table with three chairs sits in front of a window and serves her for daily dining.

Nearby is the dining room with modest and very old furnishings. Then the front room (frontrum to some!), the front window looking out on her front yard. On the other side of the front door and hall is her modest bedroom. Originally an office or den, Meg prefers to sleep on the first floor. She avoids the stairs whenever she can. Besides, the one and only full bath is on the first floor nestled next to the kitchen.

Upstairs are two bedrooms and a bathroom we now call a powder room – sink and toilet. Too much work for Meg to clean so the rooms are simply furnished and rarely used.

Meg uses the dining room as an office; there she has a writing table and bookcases. She finds a catalog with gardening supplies and flips it open. She finds the urns she is looking for, and then the bushes for the winter months (plant them in fall, water them good, and they will stay green throughout winter until spring when they turn brown; then you remove them and plant flowers). She checks the prices. Gosh! She didn’t think they would be that much. But they will look good in that place and dress up her yard.

Dress up her yard. That sounds good to Meg. She has been dressing up her home and yard for years now. Making a good impression for others to see and be aware of. No special reason but Meg feels that this makes her feel good; maybe it will make others feel good too. Besides she notices that other homes spruce up when neighbors do the same.

The neighborhood has a sense of pride in its appearance. Most of them are between 60 and 80 years of age. So it may be a generation thing! Meg does hear rumors that the guy two doors down is hiding the fact that he is nearly 90, but Meg is respectful; just as she hopes no one knows she is 80.

The neighborhood is 150 years old. The homes are modest and range in age of 125 years to 75 years old. The stores are of similar age but benefit from frequent updating. There is neatness and pride on the block. And Meg gladly does her part. This is her role to play. Keep up the neighborhood. Improve it where she can. Help others, too, in the past; for now she can only manage her own home and yard. And that’s a full time job these days.

Yes, at 80 Meg is doing her part keeping the city livable and happy.

So should we all.

August 12, 2016