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Mimi's Visit to Miri

Ages 6-9 | Story and 9 activities

Miri hasn't been in school for four days.

Mimi notices. She notices the empty chair beside her. She notices the missing voice in the lunchroom. When Morah Sara says, "Miri has a bad flu and will be home for a while," Mimi feels a pang.

"Can I do something for her?" she asks.

"That's a lovely thought," says Morah Sara. "It's a big mitzvah to visit someone who isn't well. It's called bikur cholim."

Mimi thinks about it all day. What will make Miri feel better?

At home, she tells her mother. "I want to visit Miri."

"She might be too sick for visitors," says Mommy. "Let me walk over and ask her mother."

A few minutes later, Mommy comes back. "She says Miri's feeling a little better, and she'd love a short visit tomorrow. Just twenty minutes."

Mimi jumps up. "What should I bring?"

"What do you think she'd like?"

Mimi thinks hard. She remembers the pictures Miri likes to draw. She remembers how Miri loves jokes. And she remembers how bored you get when you're stuck in bed.

That evening, she gathers her things. She makes a card with a big sun on the front, and writes inside: Get well soon, Miri! We miss you. Love, Mimi. She adds a joke on the back: What do you call a sleeping bull? A bulldozer.

She makes a little booklet of twelve riddles. She cuts out paper stars in different colors. She wraps a few crackers in a napkin, because her mother says flu patients like plain things.

The next afternoon, she and her mother walk to Miri's house. Her heart is beating a little fast. What if Miri is too tired to talk? What if she is grumpy?

Miri's mother opens the door. "Come in, Mimi. She's been asking about you."

Miri is propped up on pillows in her bedroom, wrapped in a quilt. Her nose is red, and her eyes are puffy, but when she sees Mimi, her whole face lights up.

"Mimi!"

"Hi, Miri." Mimi holds out the card. "I brought you some things."

Miri reads the card. She laughs at the bulldozer joke, then coughs, then laughs again. She flips through the riddles. "What has hands but can't clap?"

"A clock," says Mimi.

"You know them already."

"I wrote them."

Miri hugs the stars to her chest. "I've been so bored. Everyone's at school."

"I know. We miss you. Morah drew a picture of you on the board."

Miri giggles. "What did she draw?"

"A girl with a very big nose."

They both burst out laughing, and Miri has to hold her chest because it hurts. But it is a good hurt.

They play a quiet game of cards. Mimi tells her about the class. The new puppet, the spelling test, the chocolate chip cookies someone brought.

When twenty minutes are up, Mimi stands. "I'll come again if you want."

"Please," says Miri. "I feel so much better."

On the way home, Mimi feels something warm in her chest. It is a different kind of happy than getting a gift. It is the happy of giving one.

Two days later, Miri comes back to school with a big smile.

"That visit helped me get better faster," she tells Mimi. "I think laughing is medicine."