We’re about to celebrate our fourth anniversary in Canada. Little by little, we are getting used to running all kinds of errands, which I believe is key to strengthening this sense of belonging to the place we live in. However, stopping by the dry cleaner is still quite special to me.

Before the pandemic, I noticed that some of our jackets needed cleaning that couldn’t be done at home; but at that time, we were too new to Toronto, juggling studies and work all day every day, and living mostly off the savings we brought from Mexico. So, taking our jackets to the dry cleaner was not a priority. Instead, I put them in a suitcase that stayed under the bed.

Then the pandemic hit. With no one wearing formal clothes, I completely forgot that the suitcase existed.

Two years later, when the virus (kind of) let us return to our normal lives, we moved to a new house. While putting everything in order, the orange and bulky suitcase showed up again. I didn’t hesitate and set it aside immediately, this time next to the entrance. Once and for all, I was going to take everything to a dry cleaner!

I found a small shop in our new neighbourhood owned by an introverted but polite old Chinese man who barely spoke English.

– Hi, I brought these jackets; you can’t imagine how long they’ve been waiting for a thorough cleaning!

He smiled at me, checked the clothes carefully, wrote down the number of items and the total cost on his notepad, and gave me the pink sheet with the copy. Then he asked if I needed them for a specific date. I smiled back and said there was no rush.

As soon as I walked out with the pink paper in my hand, I felt a bit more like a citizen of this place. With day-to-day activities, the outsider-touristy feeling vanishes away.

Since then, I’ve come back several times to this Chinese man’s shop. He always smiles at me, asks if I need my clothes back for a specific day, and gives me my pink sheet.

I always walk out with that piece of paper feeling touched. I love how both of us, with our broken English and very different accents and ages, interact for less than five minutes and smile at each other before resuming our everyday activities, building a life thousands of miles away from where we were born.