Amazing Ann (standard:Creative non-fiction, 1408 words)
Author: Jeannette Gardner	Added: Oct 03 2011	Views/Reads: 3756/2077	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
I was inspired by an amazing woman that I just had to write about!

© COPYRIGHT – BY JEANNETTE GARDNER (SEPTEMBER, 2011) 

I was inspired by an amazing woman that I just had to write about. She
lives alone in her trailer in a trailer park for 6 months, from April 
to October for the full season. 

In 2010, my Husband and I decided to buy a trailer in this park. We
happened to buy it the last week before the park's closing date, Oct. 
15. We did get to meet some people that were still in the park who 
hadn't closed up for the season yet. We were told an amazing story 
about an elderly woman in the park, which we found incredible. 

We only had one beautiful day at that time of year, so my Husband and I
thought we'd sit out on our deck at our trailer to enjoy the nice 
weather. An elderly woman came over to welcome us to the park. She was 
carrying a strawberry cheese cake which she made especially for us. We 
thought that was so sweet of her, and this was the best strawberry 
cheese cake we've ever tasted. We got introduced, and her name was Ann. 
She told us she's been in this trailer park for quite a long time, and 
loved it along with the people there. The park closed after one short 
week of purchasing our trailer. 

After a long 6 month wait, the park opened in April of 2011. That same
woman came over to us and asked if we liked her strawberry cheese cake, 
which she remembered giving us before the park closed last season. She 
also asked us if we had a good winter, and welcomed us back. We 
eventually found out that this was the woman people told us about, 
being Ann. She has had her trailer in this park since 2003, and was a 
pensioner. Every year before the park closed in Oct., people had to pay 
a deposit fee of $500.00 to hold their spot over the winter. This 
amazing 80 year old woman did the most incredible thing I've ever heard 
about to make money for her deposit fee. She collected empty liquor, 
wine, or beer bottles from everyone in the park that she could, and 
people would even drop their empty bottles into her two bungle buggies 
that she left outside in the back of her trailer. She even went to the 
parks recycling bins to try and find more, which we've both seen her do 
as our trailer was near the recycling bins. In Canada, we pay a deposit 
for the bottles that the liquor, wine, or beer is put into, and the 
empty bottles can be returned to the liquor or beer store for a refund 
of the deposit at the time of purchase. That's if you want to do that, 
and be refunded your deposit of 10 or 20 cents per returnable bottle 
depending on the size. But the amazing other passion about Ann was that 
she would also walk approximately 7 kms with one of her empty bungle 
buggies to a different trailer park, and would go into their recycling 
bins and collect recyclable bottles that weren't returned for a refund. 
She would then walk back to our trailer park with her bungle buggy full 
of these bottles to take a break from this long walk being the age she 
was, 80. After a little break, she would then walk over a causeway, 
which divided a huge lake nearby, with her full bungle buggy of empty 
bottles, from both parks, to the liquor store in town to cash them in 
for a refund. The distance from our trailer park to the liquor store 
was 2 kms each way, and she would continue back over the causeway to 
our trailer park with her empty bungle buggy. I have tried to walk over 
that causeway which has no sidewalks; just a very small unpaved 
shoulder. I've never seen anyone walking over the causeway since we've 
driven on it several times. With the busy traffic moving in both 
directions, I got scared and just couldn't do that walk, not even one 
way! I asked Ann how she did that walk, both ways, over the causeway 
being the way it was. She replied, “I don't look at the traffic, you 
will go nuts”. This woman did this almost every day since she arrived 
in our trailer park since 2003. By doing this adventure, it paid for 
her deposit fee of $500.00 before the park closed so her spot would be 
held over the winter months. She told me that she not only did this for 
the park's deposit fee, but did it for extra money that she can earn 
for the cost of baking a lot of delicious pies, butter tarts, cookies 
or whatever she wants to bake to give to people in the trailer park for 
whatever reason. 

Most of the trailers are run by propane. I asked her how she managed to
get her huge tanks filled at a gas station. She said that there is 
always someone to help her in the park and she awards them with one of 
her home baked sweet goodies. She said next season in 2012, she will 
start luncheons in the park by making different kinds of soups, and 
home baked goodies. She will charge a very small amount for people 
joining in for lunch. She said the money will also help to go towards 


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