This is Poppy.
He stole my heart.
He lives three doors down from my host family I lived with in Viile Tecii, Romania. He is a quiet man and doesn’t smile too often. I immediately developed a heart for him. There was just something about him that drew me in. He is the cutest old man I had ever seen. I would walk past his house and he would always be sitting on the bench in front of his house. There was something so peaceful and gentle about him. One day I walked to his house and saw a pitiful little doghouse.
So Danielle, Jennifer and I had the idea to build a new doghouse for him. Before we knew it, that project idea developed into painting his house orange. So we headed to the store to buy some paint. We recruited some more helpers and began painting his house.
Poppy sat quietly and watched us paint. He spoiled us with apples, cookies, pop, and some more apples. He was always bringing us cola and treats as we painted and he would just sit and watch us, not saying anything, but once in a while standing up and pointing to a spot we missed on the wall.
He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Romanian. We didn’t say much to each other. But I would smile at him, give him hugs, and tell him I loved him even though I knew he didn’t know what I was saying.
Now fast forward to our last morning in Viile Tecii. I was saying my goodbyes to my host family, and the bus was there waiting for us, I heard someone say that Poppy was here to say goodbye. I turned around to see him standing behind me and immediately I was brought to tears. I hugged him and said goodbye and loaded the bus. I looked out the window and stared at Poppy standing outside, and he looked back. I waived, not wanting to stop. I didn’t want to leave him. As I watched him, he broke down and tears just streamed down his face. He was really, really crying and I just broke down. I haven’t seen those kind of tears coming from a man before. I was touched in such an incredible way. And I knew, without words being spoken, that love was experienced and shared between us. When I saw those tears streaming down his face, I knew that a great thing was accomplished in Romania. I knew at that moment that he felt the love from me and my teammates.
Although it was so painful to say goodbye, and those tears hurt, I am so thankful for them. It means hearts were touched, lives were touched and relationship was formed. If there are no tears shed when we leave then what did we really accomplish?
