A Big Small Story

Driving to a picnic with some friends, old and new, Genvieve, a seamstress told a story. The day before, a young woman in a wheelchair had come into her shop. She had admired a skirt and top in the window and wondered if she could try them on.
“Of course,” Genvieve replied.
“Would you mind helping me?” the woman asked.
“Not at all,” Genvieve said.
“I hope my condition won’t upset you,” the woman said. “Both my legs are prosthetic.”
“I’ll be happy to help you,” Genvieve assured her. So she helped the young woman wiggle out of the skirt she was wearing and into the skirt she wanted to try on. Once she had smoothed the material out, Genvieve stepped back to look. “It fits you perfectly!” she told the young woman, who immediately smiled.
“I’d like to try the blouse on now, if you don’t mind,” the young woman told Genvieve.
“Of course I don’t mind” Genvieve reassured her. And she helped the young woman slip off the blouse she was wearing and into the blouse that went with the skirt. “My goodness,“ Genvieve exclaimed, “this also fits you perfectly!
The young woman wheeled herself over to the large mirror leaning against a wall of the shop. First she gazed at herself in the outfit from the front. Then she wheeled around to each side. “You’re right, it really fits me perfectly. As if it were made for me,” the young woman said, a huge smile spreading across her face. “I feel so pretty wearing it.”
While the woman was paying for the outfit, after Genvieve had helped her out of the new skirt and blouse and into the clothes she had been wearing, the woman took out her wallet to pay. “I’d like to offer you one of my embroidered masks,” Genvieve, who couldn’t stop smiling herself, told the young woman.
“Thank you so much, but I’m a doctor, and the only masks I wear are surgical masks. But I’ll think of you and your kindness when I wear this new outfit to a wedding next weekend.”
“At that moment, I was even more moved than before,” Genvieve said, her voice dropping. “Imagine, that woman with no legs dedicating her life to helping others!”