How we make the old people smile on our island

This weekend me and my “bonus little brother” Loke gonna do something really fun! We gonna go to the old people home on our island and then dad will drive us all around to all the old people who still live here. We will give them bags with part of this year’s harvest and some other nice things from the farmers and fishermen on our island. It was actually dad who started this 5 years ago. He has the biggest farm here so he went around to the other farmers and the two fishermen and asked if they wanted to join. And of course they did! Dad said food got so expensive and many of the old people can’t buy much local food anymore even if they have worked their whole life with farming or fishing. So he decided that we who still live and work here should help them every autumn. Now it’s like a tradition! Everyone joins – the farmers, the fishermen, the hunters and even the shop guy in the village and some workers like carpenter and electrician. It gets so much stuff that every old person gets two big paper bags full of food! In the bags there is everything: potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, apples, oats, eggs, honey, smoked fish, wild meat, fresh pork legs, entrecote, chicken and a lot more. And the shop always sends a 500 SEK gift card. And the carpenter and electrician also send coupons for their work. It’s super fun to give out because all the old people get so so happy! We are around 20 kids who help and we go two and two because there are around 300 old people on the island. So every pair visit like 15 today and 15 tomorrow. We do it for free of course but most of the old people give us buns, candy, small money or hugs anyway. But the best part is when they start to tell stories about when they were kids. Almost all of them went in the same school as we go now, got married in the same church as our parents and played on the same places in the forest where we play now. It feels like everything belong together, like the island never really change. Dad always say you become a better person if you help others just because you want to and not because you expect something back. And it’s true cuz even if you don’t get paid with money it still feel like you get paid in your heart when you see how happy the old people get. You really feel proud of our island when everyone help each other like this. Wish you could all see their smiles.