First, thanks for your kind and comforting words.
I am in Colorado and attending to Mom's affairs. Due to a serendipitous set of circumstances I wanted to relate two incidents that give one pause...
I was real tired after a long day of travel, got to see Mom to pay my respects, about 4:30 am I hear a low battery alarm on one of the smoke detectors in the house, so I pull both batteries. At the same time something light that sounded like leaves hit the roof of the house, which can't be because there are no trees nearby, and no rain when I looked out the window. Needless to say I got chills. When I got up this morning, I tested the 9 volt batteries with my tongue, they both gave me a good buzz, so I put them back in the detectors. So far as of mid afternoon all is quiet with them, no low battery alarms. If they go bad sometime soon I will chalk it up to coincidence. If they last the entire week without beeping again, it does make you wonder. At least for me. On to incident #2.
Mom's old truck is not reliable, so today being a Saturday, a car rental company picked me up, drove me to the rental place. Nothing unusual so far, right, on the way back something said to take the business district route. Now it gets interesting. Back up a year or so ago, Mom was recovering from a shattered kneecap, so I called a local restaurant to see if they would deliver her some food to lift her spirits. I didn't know it at the time but the manager of the restaurant delivered it for free. This this place doesn't do take out. Needless to say I was blown away, spoke to the manager after to thank him and wrote to corporate saying what a wonderful person he was for bring so kind.
Now comes the part that blew me away, as I am driving through a business district, lots of traffic, malls, etc... out of the corner of my eye I recognize the restaurant whose manager was special to my Mom. I promised him the last time we spoke if I was ever in town I wanted to meet him to thank him personally. I went and and sadly found out that he moved recently to Denver. However, the new manager knew him well and promised to relay my gratitude. Then, I order lunch. Mind you, the time between my order and when I got the check wasn't more than 20 minutes. The new manager handed me the check, free. I was shocked, and overcome with emotion, then the entire wait staff, present me with a dozen red roses and a sympathy card signed by each of them. They were behind him. At that point I lost it. I looked each one in the eye and expressed sincere gratitude that was beyond words. Kindness from complete strangers. amazing, maybe there is hope for us here on Earth after all.
Rhody...
P.S. and it just so happened that a UPS store was right next door where I could buy boxes. How convenient, and amazing at the same time. The main point of the story is that sometimes if you listen to your instincts, amazing things happen.
I plan to write corporate headquarters to acknowledge and thank the wait staff at that restaurant. Hopefully the same good fortune will come around to each of them in the future when they need it most.
links to: flowers, card thumbnails below:
