I moved into my new home (in a different country) a few years ago. Up in the mountains in a small village, where I was still learning the language.
One of my neighbours is an elderly man who welcomed me so warmly when I first arrived, and always took the time to call 'hello' to me whenever he saw me around, remembered my name, waved cheerily from the car...
Small things, but it made all the difference to me trying to settle into an unfamiliar place on my own.
Over the past few months he's started sticking his head out of his window every now and again when I pass by with the dogs and asking "Do you like <insert name of delicious tropical fruit here>? I've got too many from my garden" – and then filling my arms with home-grown goodies before sending me on my way (he has an incredible garden full of medicinal herbs and fruit trees and vegetables).
Today he asked me to help him harvest something that was growing higher on a tree than he was happy to climb on his ladder, and I went home laden this time with cuttings and seeds to start planting my own little garden. Any time I try to thank him, he looks shocked and says "But it'll all go to waste otherwise".
He's not pushy, not weird (before any MN alarms start going off) – just very sweet and lovely – and I'm starting to feel like I'm taking so much without offering anything back!
I know his granddaughters come to visit him every couple of weekends, and thought about baking him a cake for a weekend when they come to visit – but it feels a little 'forced'.
Is it 'forced' or am I just being weird?! 😂Any ideas for a way I can return his kindness in an equally casual way?!