Of course, Sadie and Mataya came to our place, but I never saw them. They stopped by and left a little gift that has been present in our house every day since that early, fearful time with Covid 19 on the loose, in May 2020.
The gift was a little rock, painted by Sadie and Mataya, with the simple, but eloquent sentence, “BE NICE”.
I thought it was ‘cute’ when I first picked it up. However, as the days of Covid progressed and we were told that staying away from others as much as possible was the safest way to behave, a message to ‘be nice’ was a good reminder.
As the months rolled by and those months turned into years, that little stone took on more meaning that I ever expected it would. Sadie and Mataya wanted to do something meaningful and I wish I had the opportunity to tell them that they did.
Now that people are coming into our house to visit once again, almost all of them notice the message on the little stone that sits on our kitchen table. Some comment, while others just pick it up and hold it in their hand. Not everyone has something to say, but nobody has ever laughed at what the two girls did, and many ask who they are. All I can say is, “I don’t know.”
I’ve talked with several neighbours who also had a mysterious visit from Sadie and Mataya and found a message-on-a-rock left for them. Many still have their rock and have it displayed somewhere in their house that is personal for them.
So, thank you, Sadie and Mataya. You did a good thing and made, for me and my wife, a little light in an otherwise darkened world.