Pay it Forward!

Gaynor Young — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 03:25:32 +0000

I have this friend, Ynor. Yeah, Ynor and Gaynor. Great pair we make, huh! When Dad died, realising that I no longer had a lift to gym, Ynor offered to come three kilometres out of her way and fetch me for my early morning ritual at the Virgin Gym! During the past four years we have got to know and like each other – a lot!
I go to gym to keep the various parts of my body moving. It’s like making sure a machine is well oiled and in reasonable condition! Ynor goes to gym to work her body flat out. And I mean – flat out! She demonstrates the sheer abandon and rigorous self discipline with which a person can attack the machines and their body. Abandon and self discipline are actually opposites, aren’t they? Ynor combines them beautifully! I always laugh at the way we leave gym. I look much the same leaving as I was on entering Virgin. My face might have a slight rosy glow to it. Ynor enters the gym looking good. She leaves it, drenched in sweat, her hair tousled with every muscle alive and zinging. She has worked!
One of Ynor ‘s marvellous attributes is that she loves the same TV programs I do. I laugh at how many earnest discussions we have had about the ins and out of The Good Wife As a result of my deafness I miss a lot of what is said on television. After an episode of The Good Wife has finished, Mum waits for her telephone to ring. It always does. I quiz her about who said what.
“Oh, I see. So he said: ‘Yes, I’ll think about it,’ and then went on to do the exact opposite. What a shyster! Mums, I just love this program.”
Ynor has DSTV and a PVR. She never watched The Good Wife at the same time as I did. She was too busy catching up on other TV programs that were stored on her recorder. I loved it when she had finally watched The Good Wife. We then thoroughly analysed and dissected the program between us.
“Why don’t you get DSTV, Gaynor? You would love it,” she asked.
I laughed and rubbing my fingers and thumb together said: “Da money! Da money!” Then more seriously: “I just can’t afford it, Yns. M-Net is bad enough. I definitely can’t afford DSTV. It’s just goes outside my budget”
Then I heard the dreadful news that her husband, Alan’s work required him in Cape Town. They are moving mid-January. I wanted to put my head back and howl! I have few friends in George and Ynor was a special one. Yes, I know that I will keep in contact with her. I go down to Cape Town fairly regularly. But when a person moves away, one experiences loss. I hate that empty, gut wrenching feeling that twines itself around your heart.
Last week Ynor phoned. “Gaynor, tomorrow morning, Sandro, the TV man is coming around to your place.”
“Yes, he is,” I answered, “My MNET decoder has broken and…hey, how did you know that my decoder is broken?”
“Tomorrow Sandro is coming around,” she repeated, “to install DSTV for you.”
“What?” I croaked.
“Alan and I want you to be able to enjoy DSTV. We will pay for it for as long as you want it.”
I was unable to say another word. My eyes had instantly filled and all I could manage to articulate were these pathetic little squeaks.
Sandro duly came round and DSTV was installed and my world has changed completely! Let me explain. My Cochlea Implants have given me so much sound back but it is in the films on television and the various episodes that I come unstuck. The talking is fast and with the bodies moving, the American accents and all the action one misses a vast amount. I now have DSTV. That gives me countless films, episodes and documentaries to watch. And the most mind blowing thing of all is that most of the films and episodes are subtitled!
Ynor and Alan gave for no reason. It wasn’t my birthday or Christmas. They saw a need and gave. They bestowed on me such incredible largesse. I cannot ever begin to pay them back. But what I can do is “Pay It Forward“! Do you remember the film of that name with Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey? A good thing is done for someone and they in turn have to do something good to someone else.
And so, I am on the lookout for someone that I can do something for. I hope that somehow I can be as life changing as Ynor has been in my life……..

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Pay it Forward!