A Real Handshake!

I can think back a couple of years ago when something as simple as a handshake became a nightmare. I had pulled up to drop off a few of my teens back at their home. As they were leaving one of their aunts or cousins, whom I hadn’t met, came up to me, while I was I in the van and wanted to thank me. I smiled and we chatted for a few minutes about New City – Barrio. As we finished our conversation she reached out her hand to shake mine. I reached through the van and gave her a ‘hearty’ shake. As I drove off I thought to myself what a nice Aunt who obviously cared for her nieces. Little did I know that this innocent handshake would cause months of hard ache.

The following week I discover that these two sisters were banned from coming to any events at New City – Barrio. I asked why and got some strange answer about needing more sleep or time to do homework. After a week or so I purposely approached the mom and asked what was really happening. I had heard through a reliable source that the Aunt who had shaken my hand had said that the second after I shook her hand that I had rubbed my hand on my pants as if to get rid of her ‘touch’. I was totally taken back by this silly story, especially because I was sitting in a van that was at least 2 feet higher than this lady.

I went back to the mom and tried to reassure that there wasn’t anything going on that would cause me not to care for her and her daughters or any of her relatives. It took a few months for this handshake incident to blow over. I’m still confused as to whether the Aunt had purposely set me up to get back at me for helping her nieces. I know that these teens were totally embarrassed about what had happened. I am still numb at what this Aunt said which was totally fabricated.

Now the rest of this story is incredible. The teen’s house is next to another families’ house where the grandparents have cared for their grandkids forever. The grandpa can come across at times as being a little gruff or just the typical crusty ol’ guy. So when I am picking up his younger grandkid for a kid’s club I am pleasantly surprised that he went out of his way to come out from behind the screen door to shake my hand. He thanked me for caring for his ‘kids’ and I responded that I obviously loved them too. We joked a little about some of their behavior on occasion could be loud.

As I drove off I had this sense of wow! Someone who I really didn’t know had blessed me incredibly and it felt sooo good. I couldn’t believe that I had driven off from that same spot before only to be accused of putting down an aunt that I had never met. So please go out of your way to give a real handshake that shows your emotion and love!