30 People. 30 Days. Day 9: Yael

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I am always honest.

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​Yael is my neighbor and has been for a decade. She lives across the alley in a 12 unit apartment building her uncle used to own.  For the last 10 years, my kids and I have only known her as "that lady who once yelled at us" for playing in the alley. No one is one hundred percent sure that she is actually the one.
 
It wasn’t until the last year or so that I began to wave to Yael when she came home at night from work. That was pretty much the only interaction I ever had with her. You might say she was a perfect target for my challenge.  

With the right amount of prodding I learned that Yael is a Jewish name. Her father was Israeli and her mother has dementia (Not that the two are related.). Stuck between her two sisters, Yael is a native of the San Fernando Valley, and has lived in this area all her life.

She’s works as a salesperson for a floral company who supplies the big supermarkets and funeral homes in the area. She was surprised to know that I too worked in the same industry (FTD delivery driver) while I was trying to figure out my life. Floral arrangements is her life. And has been since 1989. She confessed that she hates her job, “I’m bored and tired with it.”  I could tell.
 
Receptive as she was for participating in the challenge, Yael used just the right amount of words need to answer my questions. But if you knew her you might say eyes and facial expressions did most of the talking. Unlike the others who share our alley, Yael is not someone who needs to bend your ear. Quiet, yet kind. That’s who she is.  
 
Having just had a weird experience on “Craig’s List” (a community website where weird happens) Yael didn’t want me to take her picture. But she did want you to know that she is “always honest.”  That is a quality I like in a person, especially my neighbors.

​Honesty is the best policy for a new friendship. It doesn't take a lot of words to be true and real. But it does take two to help spread this wondrous virtue down the alley, through the neighborhood, and into the world.  ​