Presents

I get all the best presents. My friend has given me a door. It is a truly wonderful present. The front door of my house had been crumbling and the lock dismantling itself for years. I hadn't attempted to use the front door since my mother died in 2007. She had loved opening that door so she could sun herself with a view straight up Slieve Donard, if she raised her eyes above the embarrassing gap in the hedge which means at eye level my neighbour and I are gazing right into each other's porch. I tear up if I think about the reasons my friend gave me for giving me a door. It wasn't just because I am a useless householder. I really appreciated her help in sourcing a door, choosing the bits and getting it fitted, but I was more that willing to, and expected to, pay. She only told me at the last minute, when the door was installed and I asked for the bill, that the door was a present. Just think of all the metaphorical possibilities and you may understand why this present means so much to me.