Newcomer becomes street-smart

By Mohan Nath

Image credit: Krzysztof Kowalik on Unsplash

New in Canada, we enjoyed walking around our neighbourhood, seeing how well-maintained the yards were and all the people walking their dogs and little kids riding their bikes or playing street hockey.

Everything was so clean and well organized.

A gentleman who lived at the end of our street greeted us and enquired about how we were settling in, if there was anything he could help us with.

We thanked him and said we loved the area.

“It is beautiful,” he agreed, looking pleased. “We have many children and grandchildren on the street.”

“Grandchildren?” I asked, not sure if we’d misheard.

“Yes, many!” he responded, enthusiastically.

A little surprised, as he didn’t look old enough to have grandchildren, I said, “How lovely to have them closeby. Family celebrations must be so much fun. That’s one thing we miss, our families are all in India.”

“Oh I know what you mean,” he said. “Our families are in Macedonia.”

It took a few minutes of “But you said...” and “No, no...” for us to figure out that when he spoke of children and grandchildren, he was speaking in an expansive, inclusive sense.

Everyone knew each other in the tightly-knit community and the children and the grandchildren on the street were “ours”.

We knew then we’d chosen the right place to raise our children.