They promised me their pool, then left me high and dry

Hadassah: I was happy to help, until it became too much.

Shira: We were counting on your pool. how can you back out now?

Hadassah

There’s nothing like having your own pool, come summer.

When we bought a home, after years of careful saving, I was excited about the pool in the backyard of course, but I was happily surprised at how much we actually enjoyed it. We moved in right before summer vacation began, and the kids took to the pool, excuse the pun, like fish to water. They were up at the crack of dawn, begging to go the pool, and right after day camp, there they were again. My older ones enjoyed lounging by the pool in the warm evenings, enjoying the feeling of being on vacation in their own backyard.

Of course, the excitement settled down a bit after the first couple of weeks. My kids still loved to use the pool, but it was less often. When I countered the inevitable, “I’m boooored, what should I dooooo,” by suggesting the pool, and the kids turned up their noses, I knew the honeymoon was over.

I took it in stride; I hadn’t really thought it would stay new and exciting forever. But I figured someone should enjoy it. So I invited my sister Goldy and her family over to use the pool one afternoon.

“It may as well go to good use,” I told her.

Goldy eagerly accepted my invitation; she had several little kids close in age, who loved swimming. My younger ones joined their cousins in the pool — having company over gave it new appeal, apparently — and I enjoyed schmoozing with my sister while we supervised the kids splashing and playing.

My cousin Brachie called a few days later. “Goldy was telling me that she had a fabulous time at your place the other day,” she said. “I was thinking, you can totally say no, but would we be able to come over one day and use the pool? My kids love swimming, and it would be such a fun activity for them…”

“Sure!” I told Brachie. “Seriously, it’s just sitting here so much of the time — use it, with pleasure.”

When I saw how easy it was to give others a good time — and with so little effort from my end, just making sure the backyard was clean and keeping the shades drawn on the windows that faced the back of the house — I began offering our pool to other family members and close friends, as well. Everyone was appreciative, most took us up on the offer once or twice, and I was happy to see our pool come to good use and have the opportunity to do so much chesed. Of course, I couldn’t always accommodate everyone — we used the pool ourselves fairly often, or sometimes one of the kids wanted to bring friends over to chill out in the backyard — but I was happy to share the pool whenever I could.

The summer drew to a close, and eventually we had the pool emptied as the weather grew colder.

“Looking forward to next summer,” Goldy told me with a laugh. “We saw each other so much more often because of your pool.”