As told by Virginia Vauthier

The old woman took her morning coffee and went to the front porch to sit in the chair by the little round table. It was 7:30 a.m. on a spring day in April. The roses had their first blooms. The calanchoe was still covered in red blossoms. The cottonwood across the road had new leaves that were rustling in the early breeze. It sounded as though someone was whispering to her. It was the first spring without her husband of 52 years. She was feeling sad and missing him.

The sun was just coming up in the East. Suddenly, a beautiful little hummingbird was at the calanchoe’s red flowers, so bright and quick in the early light. The woman sat very still. The red spot on the hummer’s throat was as bright as the flowers. The green feathers on its back shone in the sun. Then all at once it came toward her and fluttered about ten inches from her face. It hung there making a soft noise as though to say thank you for breakfast. With a whirr of wings it flew away. It left a smile on the face it left behind, and a sense of awe, wonder and hope she had felt before.

As she sipped her coffee, another day in a different place came to mind. On a summer day in a Texas coast town, an old man sate in a lawn chair in his back yard. The old woman was walking from the back door of the house with a humming bird feeder filled with fresh sugar water to hang from a tree that could be seen from her bedroom window. She hung it with ease and went to a chair near the man to talk a minute. She got up to go do the wash, then stopped as her husband said something and pointed to the feeder. A little hummingbird with a red spot on its throat was sipping from the feeder. She stood very still. When the little bird had its fill, it darted at her face. She blinked but didn’t move. The flutter of wings made a noise so soft, about a foot from her face for maybe 15 seconds. As it fluttered there, the woman said “You’re welcome,” and smiled. Away the pretty bird went, leaving behind a sense of awe and wonder and hope. The man smiled at them both but said nothing. The woman went in to do the wash.

So today was a repeat of a special moment that left a happy feeling.