My aunt is a very vibrant and lively person. In fact, I think she has more energy than me – and she is almost twice my age. She’s the type of person who is always on the ball and on the go. She’s competent, hard-working and very independent and she’s certainly not dilly or silly.
That said, we all have our moments – those times when our inner blonde exposes the fact that even the best and brightest of us are prone to make dim-witted mistakes, which leave us feeling downright daft.
One evening, my aunt and cousin joined their neighbours for a community braai (aka barbecue). At some stage, my aunt decided that she wanted to go home to fetch something, so she asked my cousin whether he had locked the front door. He assured her that it was unlocked and off she went.
She marched up to the front door and pulled on it, but it didn’t budge. “That’s strange,” she thought as she jiggled the handle and tried to shake the door open. Then she stood back and suddenly noticed there were fairy lights in the garden. “Oh how sweet!” she thought in delight. “I didn’t know my son put those up. What a nice surprise!”
Of course, fairy lights are all very pretty, but it didn’t change the fact that the front door wouldn’t open. So, my aunt went back to the gathering to find my cousin.
“The door is locked,” she told him. “I can’t open it.”
My cousin proceeded to assure her that the door was definitely not locked. This was slightly perplexing, but my aunt decided to return to the house and try the door again. She pulled the knob and rattled and shook the door, but it still wouldn’t open. And then, it suddenly dawned on her. This wasn’t her house!
Now my aunt lives in a place where there are a few rows of houses that all look the same, so I suppose this is understandable. Never mind that my aunt has been living there for several years and that she certainly doesn’t have fairy lights in her garden. To err is human. So, naturally, she did what any human who feels silly and stupid would do… she ran away.
In the meantime, the guy living in that particular house had noticed the commotion at his front door. However, by the time he had opened it, there was no one in sight. He subsequently wondered down to the community braai to find out if anyone was looking for him. A lady told him that she was sure she had noticed my aunt at his front door. However, my cousin boldly rebuffed her statement.
“My mother would never be so dilly!” he exclaimed adamantly.
Some time passed and my aunt didn’t return to the gathering. As a result, my cousin eventually went to look for her. He found her hiding in their house feeling very foolish, as she admitted that she was indeed the dilly lady at the man’s door. It was a surprising and unexpected confession, but my cousin convinced her to return to the braai and they all had a good laugh about it in the end.
Ah, yes! That inner blonde is hiding there inside us all just waiting to pop out when you least expect it. You can run and you can hide, but you can’t escape the fool inside – or, in this case, outside your front door!
Audrey Whyte 
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