Mysterious Ways

With the anniversaries of Mom's and Myrtle's deaths approaching, my thoughts have been even more frequently on them.

I had been thinking a lot lately that about this time last year when Myrtle, who was too sick to go shopping by then but still at home (and not in hospital), wanted to make sure she had little bags of Halloween goodies prepared for the trick-or-treaters. So, I grabbed several assorted large bags of candy at Sam's, found some treat bags at the dollar store and went to pick Chantelle up at the house and head over to Myrtle's and John's house. Chantelle and I and Myrtle (as well as she was able) put together I don't know how many treat bags, but there were a lot. She enjoyed doing that every year and she loved to see the costumed kids come to the door. (One year, I sewed her a large pumpkin costume which she wore to greet the trick-or-treaters.) So, I know how much she loved having us there to help her do that last year. That was October the 11th.

Here's the mysterious part:
Yesterday, I was getting ready to go over to Jon's and Renee's house in order to see the kids before going to work , which I do on the weekends because the house is right down the road from my work. Before going there, I had stopped at Price Chopper because I wanted to pick up some French bread to go with some Spanish chorizo (it has the texture of pepperoni but tastes more like salami, to me) that I was bringing into work to share there. I had collected the bread and the few other items that I needed and headed to the cash register. I was kind of rushing. Well, I picked the shortest line, but it was "liked to be" (a phrase Myrtle used to use quite a bit) the longest, since there was a little old lady (a black woman) unloading the groceries from her cart. I wasn't paying much attention until I put my things on the conveyor belt when she said, in a voice that was feeble and shaky, that she hadn't finished putting her things up. It was then that it struck me how she reminded me of Myrtle, since she had on a wig similar to one that Myrtle wore often and glasses like those Myrtle wore. In fact, her features (slightly) and her mannerisms reminded of Myrtle. I then noticed the cartful of things and immediately apologized for my inattention, collecting my things off of the conveyor belt. At once I saw just how much she was struggling while very shakily putting the things up on the belt, so I asked her if I could help her and she said yes. So I loaded her stuff on the belt for her, put down a plastic order divider, put my things down on the belt and went around the aisle to bag her groceries. She was obviously having a difficult time of it doing these groceries all by herself. So I asked her to wait and I would help her put them in her vehicle since I was going out to the parkiing lot too. She consented. I paid for my groceries after she paid for her order, put my own plastic bag of groceries on my arm and helped her guide her cart through the maze of shoppers out to the parking lot. On the way to her vehicle she told me that usually her husband helps her but that he is a pastor and was in the middle of performing church services at that hour. We found her van (which was in the same aisle as my car) and we put the groceries in the back of it. She thanked me and I wished her a nice day, turning to walk to my car. When I got to my car I realized that I had inadvertently grabbed my own bag of groceries off my arm and had put it in her vehicle. Thankfully she didn't move very quickly. I turned and saw the van still there, so I trotted back and tapped on her window, telling her what I had done. We laughed and she got out to help me look...sweet little thing. I found my groceries and was off again after another laugh with her about it. On the way back to my car, the memory of the day of making treat bags with Myrtle and Chantelle came to mind and I considered that it had been right around this time last year that we had made them. It made me smile all afternoon and I decided to look in my Sam's club statements out of curiousity (I had put the candy on my Sam's credit card last year) to see how close the dates were.

I was overcome with emotion just a short while ago when I dug out the statement and it showed the date of purchase for that candy last year was 10/11/08.

I know that one shouldn't brag about their good deeds and truly the reason for writing this is not to brag. But I had to share with you all the mysterious way in which God touched my life in a unique way yesterday. I have had similar things like this happen before and it always gives me such a shock.

Thank you, Lord. This will be a memory I will keep forever.