A story worth sharing

A clothesline brings strangers together

There are certain luxuries in the US that we take for granted. One being a clothes dryer. Sure, the access to these types of appliances is convenient. It makes life easier. And it is definitely more efficient than an outdoor clothesline. However, the experience of hanging your clothes to dry can be fun too! Today, our European lifestyle of hanging our wash out on a line led us to an adventure. An adventure that was humbling and which allowed us to experience the graciousness and generosity of perfect strangers. How can a clothesline do such wonderful things for the heart, you ask? Intrigued? Read on :)

Today was an especially windy day. Bonus of the wind? Our clothes dried much quicker than normal. Not such a bonus? The wind whipped Brynn's "Paige" jeans (worth over $100....) off the clothesline, down 8 stories, and over to a terrace roof of a neighboring building. For anyone who wears pants, this would be very disappointing. For a jean lover, seeing your adorable black skinny jeans on someone else's roof 8 stories down, ties your stomach in knots and could quite possibly bring tears to your eyes. 

As we looked out the window at the lonely pair of jeans below, we were determined to rescue them! We got in our elevator and rode down to the 2nd floor, knocking on the door of the man's apartment we believed to be closest to the pants. After a few minutes of charades and broken spanish, he invited us inside his home to see if we could see and/or access the jeans. After a closer look, we realized the jeans were still too far away as they had landed on the roof of a terrace of the building next door. We left our building in direction of the apartments next to us. 

In Spain, all the outside doors of the apartments buildings are locked and you often need a key to access the elevator as well. Our luck? A nice young man was entering his building at the perfect time and offered to help us. Again, a quick game of charades (clothes blowing in the wind, and then flying across apartment buildings and down 8 floors, onto a roof.....) and as many spanish phrases I could think of, he took us all around his apartment building to see if he could help us come up with a plan. We determined the 2nd floor apartment #4 would be unit closest to the jeans. 

We knocked again on another stranger's door and explained our predicament through a closed door. The woman opened her door with a smile and she and her husband accessed the situation outside their daughter's window. When they realized there was no way they could reach them, they invited us in to take a look. I was ready to climb out the window, but they assured me the roof below was only made of tin and it would be too dangerous. Next thing I know, the husband reenters the room with a broom. He hangs himself out the window and hooks the jeans onto the end of the broom. I see the jeans rising up off the roof and he secures them safely inside. We all cheer. Spanish cheers, English thanks of gratitude, hugs and kisses all around! 

Although it may have "just been a pair of jeans", this experience was life-changing. We were presented today, with the random acts of kindness of perfect strangers. The eagerness of strangers to help one another. The shared genuine excitement when the plan works! And, had it not been for the lack of a clothes dryer and the presence of our clothesline, today would have been a whole different kind of day ;)