One evening, I organized a conference call with the committee of the Association „Rise and Walk”. It was 9.30pm and we had only one point in the agenda: to use the celebration dedicated to women for the 8th of March, as an opportunity to offer flowers to the ladies in Bucharest as well as a bookmark with a poem addressed to them. On the bookmarks, made with skill and art by Daniel Constantin, the executive director of the Association, there were also the contact details of „Rise and Walk” in order to identify the initiator of these heart-warming messages.
The coordinator of the Bucharest subsidiary, Florin Dobromir, remembered that sometimes ago, I wrote a book called” Sărut-mâna, doamnă” (Approximate translation „I kiss you hand, my lady” – this being a very specific expression in Romanian used as a sign profound respect for women”). Therefore, we decided together to name our project” Sărut-mâna, doamnă”. We planned to offer tulips of various colours, and the place established was the University Plaza, the very place where the Revolution against communism in Romania started in Bucharest, in 1989.
Our gesture was a kind of revolution, as this touchy initiative of offering was done by persons with disabilities. Logically reasoning, they were the ones supposed to receive flowers for their fight with physical limitation and for the lessons they offer to us every day, managing to bring new reasons to live and be happy.
Over thirty-five persons with disabilities, in wheelchairs and blind, together with volunteers, wearing the Association vests, arrived in University Plaza at 15:30 hours on the sidewalks full of passers-by. I was impressed by the joy of the persons with disabilities and by their enthusiasm to offer a light and a smile on the faces of the ladies. „Hope TV”, the Adventist television channel filmed the occasions of the meeting between the persons with disabilities and the ladies in Bucharest. Those who received flowers were amazed to receive a gift from persons with physical problems, who were so happy.
I believe there was never in Bucharest such project done by persons with disabilities to express a tribute to women. The National Romanian Radio Station (the official media channel) asked me, in a short interview, to explain the project. I told them that these persons, with physical limitation. Have the pleasure to be part of the social events, national and international holidays and of the important activities of Bucharest, as well as the programmes of the institutions where they are called.
A blind person, who was involved in the project and offered flowers to the ladies passing by confessed that giving flowers and bookmarks, made him feel that he had a light within his heart that he was offering together with each flower. Stefania, a member of the Association, in wheelchair said that giving flowers meant for her sharing some of her happiness. Aurel Burcea, the vice-president of the Association, when offering a flower to a lady was asked by her: „Well, what should I offer you?” „Nothing else, but a smile” he replied.
A lady, asked by the reporter from „Hope TV”, how she comments the gesture of the persons with disabilities, said that for her, this is a Leeson she cannot forget.” The valid people should do this, not them”, she said. Another lady, when receiving the flower and the bookmark, wanted to offer money to the person who gave it. When she was refused, she could not believe it. The persons with disabilities expected only to have their gift accepted with joy. Another elderly lady commented this action saying that it gives her hope that there is still unconditional giving and gentility. „This is a Lesson!” she concluded.
At the end of the event, I was stopped by a passer-by and he told me that he knows me from TV and would like to recite a poem to me. I was amazed to hear it was a poem written by my daughter, with the title „The Beggar”, which contains the message that all of us beg for the moral beauty from people’s lives that can be a source of happiness for us. And this was the briefing of this experiment... The disabled begged the smiles and fed on them like on a feast full of taste. And after such a great „meal”, they naturally said: „Thank you, God! It was delicious!”
