Rhoda was another interesting neighbour. She never married and had been very close to her mother and father. When I first met her she was living in a little cottage at the foot of the hill. Her father had died in Montreal and she and her mother had moved to Victoria. When I met Rhoda, her mother had just passed away and Rhoda was devastated to the point of becoming a recluse. I walked by her home with our little Welsh Corgi, Jimmy. When she spotted the corgi, she left off gardening and ran over to pet him.
We began to talk, she shared about how much she missed her mother. In the course of the conversation she mentioned that she had travelled the world and had hundreds of slides. I encouraged her to share her slides with people. We became friends and in no time she came out of her shell and began inviting neighbours to "Slide-show Evenings". Her pictures were fabulous and the details she provided with each slide made "Evenings with Rhoda" a real treat. She eventually showed her slides to the general public via the local library.
Interestingly, Rhoda shared the same birthday as Ken, so we often celebrated their birthdays together. She adored Ken!
Rhoda travelled to almost every country in the world, always travelling on her own. In Russia she was invited to see some guy's 'etchings', in Turkey she slept on a rooftop, in Rio De Janeiro she left a bus tour and wandered off on her own, to capture the statue 'Christ the Redeemer' on film.
Suddenly a man appeared and pushed her off the road and down an embankment, threatened her by holding a large rock over her head, took her camera and watch, not realizing she was wearing a money belt. Then, just as suddenly, he dropped the rock and ran away. Rhoda said she was never sure if the man realized she was old enough to be his grandmother or if he felt convicted by the Statute of Christ.
Rhoda had fascinating tales to tell. There was the time when she developed an extremely itchy spot on her leg after returning from some exotic country. Days later she witnessed a chubby worm crawl out of the infected area.
In Victoria, Rhoda rode everywhere on a very old pushbike. With her rough attire and basket filled with a variety of stuff including bits of wood, she usually resembled a bag lady. But when necessary, Rhoda rose to the occasion with a vengeance.
Rhoda refused to have a telephone or a television. She liked her garden kept neat and often rose at 3 or 4 a.m. working under the street light to rake up offending leaves or anything that would look untidy in the light of day.
Our Rhoda was a bit eccentric but she was a fascinating and wonderful person to know and we miss her very much. The bottom of the hill is just not the same without her.
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