Sunday, April 5, 2009

Kindness and Generosity


If you've been following along, you might have noticed that I had painters in to repair a bit of a skylight leakage problem following the installation of new roofing on the little house. This is the interior ceiling of the little house with the small stain of a very slow drip over the winter. I know it's barely visible in this photo, but it's a faint light brown stain that starts narrow just at the bottom of the skylight and widens as it slowly makes its way down the ceiling toward the pipe that is my gas heater's chimney pipe.

The roofing company, Brady Roofing, sent the foreman of the roofing crew and a helper out to paint that one triangle of my ceiling. They did a lovely job, but I nearly killed myself getting ready for them to paint that wall. My two best and biggest bookcases are against that wall and they are both glass fronted. So to protect them I unloaded all the books and moved them into the greenhouse. Turned one bookcase's front to the wall and disassembled the other and moved it into the greenhouse. I took down art work from the wall below. It was a hard days work getting ready for them. And to make it harder I've been sick way too long, and am weakened by this illness and the emotional part of rejection of the novel has finally hit.

The surprise of this encounter with the foreman and his helper was the charm, intelligence and elegant English of the new guy. His name is Ricardo and I couldn't stop talking to him. It slowed things down and probably annoyed Omar, the foreman on the original job. What might have taken a couple of hours stretched into most of the day. I know it must baffle Omar and Brady Roofing that I won't agree to an 8 AM arrival time. I find it almost impossible to go to sleep before 2 AM, so getting up at 6 or 7 is a punishing call-time for me. If they were doing the whole ceiling I'd agree to the early time. But I knew it wouldn't take that long to do that one triangle. However, once I discovered that I had an intelligent man from Mexico working in my house, I wanted to learn something about Ricardo. He was willing to talk Mexican politics. Heaven. Hillary was in Mexico and telling us that the Mexican drug wars were our problems. This man, Ricardo, is a man who the Italians would have called "simpatico." I liked him immediately. And during the day of my asking prying questions I found out that he had been making his living as a handyman. I asked him what he specialized in and he said he could do it all--plumbing, electrical, you name it, he can do it. And based on the care he gave the painting I'm betting he can do it well. So I got his full name and phone number and planned to call him as soon as I get my property taxes paid.

Then I got a call for the charming man who owns Brady Roofing to tell me that Ricardo was offering to come back to paint the rest of the ceiling. I explained that I couldn't afford to pay him just yet. Mr. Brady said, "Ricardo wants to make you an offer you can't refuse. May I put him on the phone?" "Yes, of course."

Turns out Ricardo is willing to come back and paint at no charge to me. How is this possible? I could never let a working man come work for me and not pay him. That would be unthinkable. It goes against my sense of fairness and value for the skill and time of a working person. If you do hard work for someone else, unless they're family, you should get paid. But I'm not family. The weather has been bad here and the roofers are not working outside, so he says he has time and is ready to schedule the job. Still I put him off a couple of days. Then we schedule it.

I don't know why I thought Ricardo would only paint one triangle at a time. I thought he would be alone. I thought it wouldn't be too much to ask him to do the moving and lifting and draping. I just didn't have it in me to do that myself. I'm a ghost of my usual self. I made no effort at all.


Ricardo arrived promptly at 10 AM with another worker, a Mexican man who doesn't speak English. I was smoking and drinking my coffee and watching the morning news. And so they set about moving furniture, and taping and draping the walls, protecting the things that weren't essential to move.





And all the while I talked to Ricardo. And all the while I talked to him I schemed on how to make him part of my family. If I had a son I would want a son like this man. I feel kinship with him. I think this is part of the meaning of the word "simpatico." There is no English word that encompasses all that "simpatico" means. But kinship is part of it. We could talk about anything. I could wax lyrical about Ricardo and his lovely self, but I don't want to embarrass him. I told him I write a blog, and he just might see this. I tried to pay him. He said no. It's a really difficult ceiling to paint and in the past has required scaffolding. I argued with him, trying to explain why it was so important to me. How could I hire him to do other jobs if he wouldn't let me pay him? He still said no. When his back was turned I slipped a couple of hundred dollars in the pocket of his jacket. It wasn't a tenth enough. I was sitting at my computer when he left. He pulled the money out of his pocket and frowned at me. He handed it to me, smiled and shook my hand. I was starting to tear up when he left. This is how my ceiling looks now. More photos later.

10 comments:

susan said...

The pictures are wonderful but most especially so is the one of lovely Ricardo on the ladder. Finding kindness and generosity is an incredible blessing.

You may not have found a publisher for your book yet but I'm sure you will. In the meanwhile there are those who love you who have never met you and those who meet you with love.

Peace and good dreams.

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

wow ... more than a gift, a message to you from the (gulp, can't believe I'm saying this) the universe !

love surrounds us if we are willing to see.

Anonymous said...

I am not a people's person but after reading that, my faith in human kind is restored.Lovely, you.

themom said...

Consider yourself fortunate. The pictures show he has talent and he appears to be a nice young man. I'm sure, in the future he will accept payment and you will be able to rest easier. I certainly hope your health is improving - I'm beginning to worry about you!

La Belette Rouge said...

You receive kindness and generosity because that is what you give out and I am no woo-woo gal and don't believe in it. But, I do think that people do respond to who you are and I have no doubt that soon a publisher will love you as much as we all do.

Comrade Kevin said...

Amazing what you can learn about someone when they are willing to talk and you are willing to listen and vice-versa.

Simple kindness is such a wonderful blessing.

Commander Zaius said...

Utah, shame on you. You gave a job to a honest, ambitious, hard working and intelligent guy who did fantastic work leaving some slacker American redneck, high school dropout who would have splattered paint and screwed your house on the couch watching Lou Dobbs and listening to Limbaugh.

Utah Savage said...

Beach I know. I'm guilty. And I'm going to do it again and again.

By god, I will hire the hardworking, honest, smart, generous, kind, and skilled worker, especially if he is a native american like me. I bet we have more in common. generically speaking, than, say, Lou Dobbs and I. And Lou Dobbs is about to get blasted again by this savage women. God what a stupid man.

Every bit of work that's been done well on my house has been done by a native american. And while we're on the topic, it is all America from Canada to Argentina. We are merely living in the United States. It is not the greatest country on the face of the planet and god does not love us more than all the others who live on this planet. Surely god has better things to do than bless every itty bitty uppity and/or stupid thing the people of western European descent who immigrated here to steal these lands from the indigenous peoples already living here does. I think any Mexican has more right to be here than any descendant of the European immigrants that came here two or three hundred years ago. White does not make right. Christian is not better than Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu. Either we are all god's children, or there is no god. And the ones who lived here first have first rights. The European immigrants who stole these lands from all the "Indian" tribes also stole Texas and California from the Mexicans.

So, fuck y'all if you consider yourself "white' and a "real American." You're just another descendant of illegal immigrants.

yellowdoggranny said...

what a lovely story...but im thinking the whole time ...gee i hope roberto used kilz, because if he didn't that stain is coming back..hah..sorry i worked in paint store too long not to think that.

lisahgolden said...

What a great thing for you both. I'm sure each of you got something good out of it. And that human connection is so damn powerful, isn't it?