When climbing in an apple tree
Too high, as it turned out to be
My friend went crashing to the ground
We needed help, I looked around.

Parents came rushing from the back door
They’d seen the fall and knew the score.
A leg was broken, that much was true
The ambulance came, and I went too.

The experts carefully examined my friend
And said hospital time would make it mend.
My parents were called, and they both came
I said I felt I was to blame.

They said the best thing to show I care
Was to make things to deliver there.
I started with a card to say ‘Thinking of you’
With swirly borders, yellow and blue.

What picture could I draw to raise a smile?
I thought about it for a while.
I chose a picture of my friend and me
Beside a chainsaw and an apple tree.

Other visitors came to see the patient lying there.
‘How are you?’ ‘Does it hurt?’ ‘Can you walk anywhere?’
You’d have to wonder stuck in bed if the answers would be plain
Or if they gave a moment’s thought, but the next lot asked again.

The next time I visited I made cupcakes
And covered them with sprinkle shapes.
My friend was thrilled and sat upright
They looked like a starry moonlit night.

More friends arrived to say ‘Hello’.
How would their conversation go?
‘Don’t you wish you could go out?’ ‘Are you missing family?’
Do they think this helps? A reminder of what cannot be?

The next time I brought home made lemonade
To remind us of afternoons in the shade
Of yes, that’s right the apple tree
With which we now have history.

‘You’re in the best place’ people say.
Have they been in hospital someday?
The days are long, sleep’s hard to find
And rumbling trolley’s jolt your mind.

Finally, the day came for my friend to go home
Comfortable with family, no longer alone.
I wondered how the drive had been
And how walking up the steps would seem.

My doorbell rang, a man stood outside
He had a parcel tall and wide.
The box said ‘Cake’ addressed to me
‘I’m not the patient – that can’t be.’

My friend’s parents had seen the things I brought
And recognised the careful thought.
To show this they had sent a treat
A cake for my family and me to eat.

I opened up the card and saw:
‘Acts of kindness mean so much more
Than lightly spoken words can say.
Thank you for your care each day.’