‘A Harvest of Friends’
By John Bach
Nick from Reliable Cleaning showed up at our house this week to clean our home. His company donates this service to women going through chemo treatments. He shared how busy they are and how difficult it is to find help, yet, here he was giving away his services.
My wife absolutely loves the TV show “Little House on the Prairie.” We have owned the entire series in multiple formats. First it was the DVD box set. Now, I’m pretty sure we have access to all ten years on Apple TV or one of the other streaming services we subscribe to.
Though it debuted generations before their time, my kids grew up on the ’70s pioneer-life historical drama starring Michael Landon. They really had no choice. I remember many snowy Saturdays when our three blonde babies would be sprawled across our couches and snuggled up to their mama watching episode after episode. They ate that sappy show up like maple sugar candy from Oleson’s Mercantile.
I tried my best to fight it off. Countless times I tried to pass through the living room on my way to the garage for a weekend project. I’d drop some snarky comment: “Are you watching this again?”
Yet somehow it would reel me in. I blame the thematic music. Who can resist those strings? “This is so bad,” I’d say, as I paused, lingered then eventually grabbed my seat next to the girls for an afternoon in Walnut Grove with Pa, Laura and THAT Nellie Oleson!
Ten years ago we did a spoof of “Little House” with the girls and their friend recreating the show’s opening credits. Pay no attention to Josie wiping out in the meadow stickers. Ironically, their friend Laura in the video is also named after Laura Ingalls.
But I digress.
On one of our walks through the neighborhood this week, Julie told me she sobbed during the Little House episode called “A Harvest of Friends.” This had been a particularly difficult week after chemo treatment, and she turned to her comfort show. I happen to know this episode has always been among her favorites, but she explained that it hit her differently post-cancer, and I immediately knew why.
If you are a super fan — which I’m definitely not — you know that this early episode saw Pa working multiple jobs to help the family get established along Plum Creek. When he falls from a tree trying to retrieve a kite he’s no longer able to meet his responsibilities, which threatens everything for the Ingalls. That is (spoiler alert) until the community members of Walnut Grove show up to his rescue. The show ends with Half Pint dropping this doozy into her remembrance book: … “Pa said he'd harvested a crop he didn't know he had planted. A harvest of friends.”
You don’t know how powerful it is to have friends, acquaintances and even complete strangers step into your life in a loving way until you are feeling truly vulnerable. Since Julie’s breast cancer diagnosis, so many people have loved her and our family in amazing ways. I’m not about to name names, but you know who you are. So many meals have shown up on our doorstep. Heartfelt cards hit our mailbox. Flowers out of nowhere. The calls, texts and random acts of kindness.
Despite the current situation, our harvest is bountiful.
