Reading - Never too late to learn

I had been invited to the Mothers' and Grandmothers' Day at my granddaughter's primary school. After finding a couple of seats at one of the long trestle tables, my daughter, a music teacher at the adjoining (隔壁的) high school, went back to work, leaving me alone at the morning tea function.

At one end of the table, two mothers were engrossed (全神贯注的) in deep conversation, unaware of me. On the other side of me, another group of mothers also ignored me. Across the table, down a little way, two young Vietnamese mothers looked up, noticed that I was alone and started to speak to me.

After the morning tea finished, they took me in hand and escorted (护卫) me to the hall for the entertainment, finding seats for their friends and me. Our conversation was interesting and one of the young mothers told me she would like to become a teacher but was concerned that she was too mature to embark(着手) on a new course. I had experienced a similar situation, and at the age of 45 had gone to university to do a BA degree and a Graduate Diploma in Education.

We exchanged names and I gave her my card with my e-mail address on it. A couple of weeks later she sent me an e-mail and told me that she was going to look into doing an education degree. I was happy that I had helped her but it was her act of kindness in befriending (友好对待) me that made such a difference to my day.