I can't even begin to describe how overwhelming the generosity of others was after my surgery. All the dinners and food that showed up just in the nick of time. Except for that once.
My good friend from college had signed up for that nights dinner, but she also wanted to make sure we had enough basic groceries for lunch and stuff. She called that morning and asked for a grocery list. I told her that my neighbor would be driving us all to the airport about an hour away but that her mini-van didn't have a DVD player. No problem! Julie to the rescue. She said I will stop by with a DVD player and the latest animated movie as well as dinner because I bought that already. You just have your grocery list ready.
Amazing. How did I get so lucky as to trade off a grocery list for a lifesaving DVD player and get a ride to the airport to spend some more time with my sister who flew in to take care of me. Well needless to say the drive was less than uneventful. It ended up being the day that we had a snowy white out causing an 85 car pie-up on I-75 which slowed us down but thank goodness we were safe. We got to the airport just in time but then had to take a very round about way home in order to get around the closed interstate.
By the time we got home I was so thankful to know that dinner was in the refrigerator and that the groceries where on the porch. Or at least that is what I thought. I was so exhausted by the time we got home I didn't think anything of it when there were no groceries on the porch, maybe my husband brought everything in at lunchtime. I tried to lay down but my phone beeped again with a text from my girlfriend, "Did you get the food?"
Ok so I guess I should go look so I can say thank you, which I did. I didn't see anything in the fridge. So I go look on the porch. Nothing. So I go ask my husband what he did with the groceries. "What groceries?" Seriously?? "Wait!" he says and pulls out an envelope "this was in the door?"
WTF??
Thank you for your donation to the Food Pantry every can helps
You have got to be kidding. What are the chances that the day someone leaves me groceries there is also a food drive in our neighborhood - and they took all the food!
I was too tired at this point to even talk, so I handed my husband my phone and told him what must have happened and that he could tell Julie - I was going to sleep.
As Paul Harvey used to say.....And now for the rest of the story.
While I slept my husband relayed what must have happened to my friend Julie. Who's reply was
"Oh Hell no!" He gave her the food pantry information. She got on the phone and called until she got a person on the phone. Then she told them what happened and that she wanted that food back. The man was very kind and apologetic and offered to let her come down to the food pantry and he would give her some food. To which she replied as nicely as she could, "No thank you."
Because I know Julie and what she was thinking was "Are you Freaking kidding me! I spent $30 on Boar's Head Lunch meat and you want to give me govt cheese and canned beans?"
What she did do was call up her friend who lives in my area, then she went and picked her up leaving the woman's husband with all 6 children between them while these two ladies went and stacked out the Food pantry. When the driver got back with the bags he'd collected they jump out of the car and demand their groceries that were wrongly taken. My friend even pulled out her receipt to make sure they got all the bags. This man was also apologetic and remembered the bags. He had to go inside because he had stored them in the fridge.
It gave my friend a chance to ask her most burning question,
"Did you really think someone would donate Lunch meat, cheese, bread, and fruit and veggie trays? Isn't that a little odd?"
His response-
"Not really, I've seen a lot weirder things. You'd be surprised at what people donate."
Having been an inner city school teacher for 15+ years now - she didn't have to ask for an explanation. She just said thank you and dropped off my groceries for the second time that day.....and that is the rest of the story.
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