The Gift

One early afternoon I went to see my aunt who was ill.  She had a problem.  It was Sister Thompson's birthday who was more than 90 years old, but who was hale and hearty and an ardent Temple worker.  She had lived in their apartment for quite some time previous to this and was a good friend.  My aunt had sent her husband to the store to buy a small gift for Sister Thompson, and he had bought a birthday card and a hot-cake turner. (probably because that is what my aunt needed as hers was broken) She asked would I please deliver the card and gift to Sister Thompson on my way home. I assured her I would be glad to do it. I would also get a card and take to her.

 I went to the variety store, purchased my card, and went to Sister Thompson's to make the presentation. She said, "But I have a hot-cake turner, I don't need two."

I said, "Well, I will take it back and exchange it for something else, perhaps a nice hankie."

"No, I have plenty of hankies"

"But what little thing would you like that I might get you?"

''Well," she said, "I need a can opener, not the kind you squeeze with one hand and turn with the other, but the kind you work up and down." and she showed me her old one that would no longer work.

So I went back to the variety store to find a can opener that worked up­and-down. They had none. I went to Wright' s.  They had none. I went down town to all the stores I thought might have one but with no success; there just was not one that worked up and down in the town. So I bought a nice berry bowl for which I paid several times the price of a hot-cake turner and took it to Sister Thompson, from us both.

Then I went to my aunt's home and told her what I had done, and gave her the hot-cake turner to replace her broken one. A friend of my aunt's just happened to be there who said, "We have one of those old fashioned can openers, I will go get it and take it to Sister Thompson." By then the afternoon was well spent as I went home.