<p>The night before we were to take our profoundly ill S2 through the snow to a hospital 180 miles away, I called a friend to ask about some directions. About 90 minutes later (this is probably 10 at night) the doorbell rang, and there she was, with a suitcase packed with “the things you need that you are going to forget, and lunch, and a blanket”. </p>
<p>Today at church, there were mounds and mounds of packages for our 7 angel families. I’m sure that’s the same in many houses of worship. What struck me was the tags: a little boy’s mom asked for a pair of cowboy boots for him; the bag had boots, plus a hat, plus a toy horse, plus a Gene Autry movie. A group of teens pooled their money and bought a 16 yr old a pair of Uggs when she had simply asked for new boots of any kind. The quilters made 28 twin size childrens’ quilts in their favorite colors in 4 weeks’ time when the parents had asked for blankets.</p>
<p>Ive had so much help over the years for car related problems.
When I was still a teenager, I was spending a lot of time trying to distract myself from my fathers sudden death by partying. I drove into the ditch outside one house ( I wasn’t on substances, it was very dark & rainy and everything was so covered with leaves you couldnt tell there was a ditch) I didn’t know anyone at the house, only that some friends of mine had told me a rock band lived there. Someone had been watching out the window, and they called a tow truck to pull it out, and brought me inside to dry off, made me tea & put me to bed. ( by myself) I became friends with many from that group of folks, ironically, they became much better friends than the people who had told me about their house in the first place.</p>
<p>The next year, I rode to Seattle one morning, with a casual friend for something to do ( she was trying to track down her boyfriend- it was much more difficult without cellphones!) We were slowly driving through one of the nicer neighborhoods looking for his house when her car died. We went up to the closest house to use their phone. It belonged to an older couple and the man came out to look at the car( the fan belt had broken) he went to the auto parts store to get us a replacement while his wife gave us milk and cookies. He fixed the car- wouldnt take any money ( I dont think we had any) and told us we reminded them of their grandchildren.
Very sweet couple. You would think that after that my friend, would decide to go back home. But she still was determined to find her boyfriend( at this point I was wondering just how much she actually knew about him)</p>
<p>We then went to a waterfront park that was known to be a place where teens congregated.( I wasn’t familiar, cause I rarely ventured from the suburbs) Drag races were going on and we stopped to watch. I noticed one young man crossing the street to get a better view and suggested to my friend that we * stand over there!* Afterwards, her car wouldn’t start again!! The young man from above & his friend had AAA, so they called a tow truck to jump the battery, and then insisted on following us back home to the burbs. I ended up riding in their car with ( who is now H) and the man whose car it was rode with my friend. Dumb, I know- cause they could have been weirdos ( it was the same general time period as Ted Bundy) but he wasn’t and now we have been married for almost 32 years! ( & we live in the same neighborhood as the park where we met) :)</p>
<p>I want to say that I dont think concentrating on the more positive interactions in life diminishes the lives that were lost this week.
On the contrary, I think by reminding ourselves that there *are angels *among us ( whatever that term means to you) is a way to reinforce our connections with each other and is a way we can honor them.</p>
<p>My S2 just told me this story as we were eating lunch today.</p>
<p>S2(new college grad) went to the Verizon store yesterday to buy a phone. As you can imagine, the store was very busy/crowded with Christmas shoppers. As he was standing in line, he saw/heard a very irate man berating the Verizon customer service workers… yelling that he worked long hard hours and didn’t have time to wait around for such poor service,etc…very embarrassing scene for the C.S. workers. </p>
<p>Then S2 spoke up. He told the man "Hey buddy, we all work long hours. Give them a break.
The man then turned on S2 and yelled him too. S2 said "Look these people are doing the best they can and you just need to CHILL OUT…and gave him a hard stare (S2 is a big guy ex football lineman as is his best friend who was with him). The man turned around and left the store. By that time all the Customer Service people were laughing. </p>
<p>S2 worked in a grocery store all through h.s. and knows how it feels to deal w/ irate customers. I’m proud that he took that guy down a peg for his poor behavior and buoyed the Verizon workers spirits during a long Saturday at work.</p>
<p>Some customers are amazingly rude I agree, but I’m also empathetic to the customer that lost it- especially with the Verizon connection.
I have another story.
When D was still in high school, my car was broken into & my purse was stolen ( out of the school lot) :p. Not only my wallet was taken but my flip cellphone & my classic video ipod.
I posted about my frustration with the theft on a local website. Especially about how much I missed my ipod. I not only used it for music, but I watched videos & read books and took it with me everywhere.
Someone offered to replace it- I told them that, that wasn’t why I was posting, I had just wanted to vent, but they convinced me that it was alright to accept it.
I was working on trying to open myself up to accepting kindness, so I agreed.
They soon sent one almost identical to the one I lost except for the color!
People can really be amazing.</p>
<p>H & I were traveling with our young kids in New Orleans. I was wrangling the kids (infant and toddler) and he was carrying our bags. When we got home from the zoo to the hotel, we got a call from a stranger, asking us if we had lost a waist pack. I was puzzled & asked H didn’t he have it? Turns out, he had left it behind in the St. Charles streetcar. A kind stranger dropped off my waistpack at our hotel front desk, refusing to ID himself and refusing any reward. He said, “Pay it forward.” It was a great relief to get it back even before we had missed it!</p>
<p>Once when our flight was stranded in Montana, several of us were able to convince the lady at the car rental agency to drive us down the hill to the hotel when she left the airport. We gave her a box of chocolate covered mac nuts as a token of appreciation & returned the next morning to fly out to our destination.</p>
<p>Another time, when we accidentally missed our flight during a layover in Texas, a ticket agent took pity on us and booked us on a flight the next morning at no additional charge. He also got us a special rate at a nearby hotel which had free shuttle service.</p>
<p>My most wonderful angels have been docs who have helped our family through its medical odessy. One in particular has sent us hundrds of email replies and never accepted any financial compensation!</p>
<p>Loved it as well. My niece loved her 4 years at ND & did several service field trips over breaks, including building houses in Appalacia (she drove the students in the ND van), and several other activities, which she loved!</p>
<p>My family experienced a couple heartwarming things following the flood in Binghamton last year. First, there were just a variety of angels around offering whatever help they could. Their sump pump quit relatively quickly, and a neighbor who had a better one went around and helped all of the neighbors who did not have a pump or whose pump had broken. Then there were people who went around just offering hot meals to everyone (egg McMuffins, whatever was on hand). </p>
<p>One of my mom’s coworkers who is just a phenomenal person (I met him working at the factory during the summer) really takes the cake though. For one, he and his wife had a vacation scheduled out of the country the week of the flood. When the flood happened, they decided not to go and instead spent their vacation helping out around the area doing anything they could.</p>
<p>When my mom came back to work, apparently he caught wind of the fact that she and her family had been affected by the flood. He called her into his office (he is one of the head engineers in the company) and asked her if there was anything that she needed. After he insisted multiple times, my mom said that she could really use new shoes. Pretty much everyone in the area had ruined their shoes in the flooding as the water was really dirty and a couple feet deep. He then gave her an envelope with $100 in it to buy new sneakers to replace the ones that had been ruined. With his blessing she ended up splitting the money with a coworker and friend who lived just down the street who also needed shoes. In general, that was a really tough time for our family but the kindness of others can really help balance out the bad.</p>
You would think that after that my friend, would decide to go back home. But she still was determined to find her boyfriend( at this point I was wondering just how much she actually knew about him)</p>
Afterwards, her car wouldn’t start again!! The young man from above & his friend had AAA, so they called a tow truck to jump the battery, and then insisted on following us back home to the burbs. I ended up riding in their car with ( who is now H) and the man whose car it was rode with my friend. Dumb, I know- cause they could have been weirdos ( it was the same general time period as Ted Bundy) but he wasn’t and now we have been married for almost 32 years! ( & we live in the same neighborhood as the park where we met) :)</p>