Transporting

Hello ye all:
 
Driving out of our gated community in Port Elizabeth last week I perceived a slender woman, perhaps 5' 6", walking along the roadside with a large television set on her head.  I started driving on my way to the grocery store but was so caught by the uniqueness of this sight, that I turned around and stopped alongside the woman.  The television was wrapped in brown paper tied with thin rope but you could tell by the shape of the "package" that it was definitely a television set.  She was holding onto the TV with one hand and in her other hand she was carrying a bag.  I said: "Is that a television set on your head?"  She said yes.  I said, "That looks real heavy. Where are you traveling to?"  She said she was going to catch a taxi down by Superspar.  I knew Superspar was one mile away so I said, "That's a long way to go with a television set on your head.  Come, I'll give you a ride to the taxi stand.  Bring the TV we'll put it in the car."  
 
I opened the trunk, she took the TV off her head and I grabbed it to lift into the trunk.  I was surprised at how heavy it was and how large. It wouldn't fit in the trunk.  I told her we would put it on the front seat on the passenger side.

She lifted the TV, I opened the front door and she maneuvered the TV onto the front seat.  Upon looking closely at her I realized for the first time she had grey hair and was probably a grandmother in her seventies.  At least she looked like it.  She got into the back seat and we drove toward the Superspar.  I asked her how far she had come carrying the TV on her head.  She said she came from Montmedy Road which is at least a half mile away.  Depending on her exact point of origin on that long Montmedy road, she could have been carrying the TV on her head for a mile.  I asked if she had always carried things on her head.  She replied, "Ever since I was a young girl."  "Do you wear something on your head to protect it?"  I asked.  "No, just my hair."  I was amazed that a petite slender woman like Nicole Young, but taller, could carry such a heavy and awkward load on her head.  I asked her if she had any grand children.  She said, "Yes, many."  We arrived at the taxi stand, she grabbed the TV from the front seat and said, "Thank you.  May God bless you."  Then she entered the taxi van with her TV set.
 
I have seen many a woman carrying things on their heads walking along crowded streets and country roads, but never a petite Nicole Young physique in the form of a seventy year old grey-haired grandmother, carrying a large heavy television set balanced on her head walking along a country road.
 
I am glad that I stopped that day and gave that grandmother a ride, afterall, my mother was seventy once.  And my dear wife is now seventy-one, but some how, I can't quite picture her walking 2 miles with a large heavy televsion set balanced upon her head.  May you all remain light headed and not heavy headed with the burdens of life.  But should you ever should feel dark and dreary, try walking with a large heavy television set balanced on your head for two miles.  There is always someone somewhere who carries a larger burden than each one of us.
 
Elder S.