Happy Monday – in Homage to my past blog posts, I have decided to pick a few and post them again. I will be doing that over the next several months (or so). I’ll be copying and reposting book reviews and some key blog posts that I love. BUT – It’s too much work to recreate nearly ten years of blogging. Instead, I will write again about the Veiling Devotion, Bible Journaling, Homeschooling and why it works until it doesn’t… and many other things. Thanks for sticking with me as I grow my blog and reinvent myself as mom, wife, blogger, writer, etc.
The below is a post from May of 2010. Perhaps one of my biggest gifts is listening to strangers. I don’t know why they seek me out, but they do… in church, at restaurants, grocery stores and everywhere. I am so thankful for all I’ve learned from them!
May 20, 2010 – Stopped by a Perfect Stranger
Today my post is not about me…. it’s about Listening to and Loving Others….You know, sometimes we just need to be listened to and loved. And I met a lady in WalMart today who needed me to do just that – and it was so interesting and wonderful!
Here is her story!
Well, she was an only child. She was 12 (1952) when her parents took on a border (a married couple) in their garage apt. She said she stared at this man every day from the window. They moved away a year or so later. She got married had three boys, her husband left her for another woman (she was 25). So she got two jobs and was working at a local blood bank. A few years passed, and there was a blood drive for a major explosion on an oil field. This would have been like 1968. She said she never forgot him, she had a major crush on him for years as a little girl. And he had a distinctive voice that she’d have never forgotten!
Anyway – he was the foreman at the oil field and brought a big crew in to give blood for their co-workers. She said when she heard his voice the hair stood up on the back of her neck and she didn’t dare look at him. Well – he stopped and stared at her and she never looked up. She said — right before the doors closed at 7pm that night, he walked in, leaned over and said “you’re my girl aren’t you?” and she said “Yes”.
They went out to dinner, and got a laugh because he knew she was staring at him. He said that is partly why he and his wife moved. hahaha Turns out his wife had been killed in a car crash and he had a young daughter. They married six weeks later. And do you know her ex tried to fight him a few times. Uh – he left her with three boys and ran off with someone else and then tried to fight the guy who finally loved her. Years later when their oldest graduated the ex had the nerve to say “I don’t hate you”! Uh – THANKS BUDDY! She and I got a laugh at that.
Well, her husband died last year and she’s lonely! They were married 41 years. She was talking about prices and started telling me how hard it has been since her husband has passed and how his last year or two alive depleted their savings and how the oil company went bankrupt and they don’t get his retirement he paid into all those years. And how she paid as much as she could on the bills, sold her house, etc… and just finally had to walk away. Seems the insurance company wouldn’t pay for the last stroke because he’d just been discharged less than ten days before and that is a loophole. And how she lives with one of her sons, and how she hates it… but no one ever asked her.
But she’s got her a job now and will be 70 in a few weeks. I may look her up. She told me where she went to church! Anyway — I must have stood there for a good 45 minutes just listening. We talked about how blessed she was and how she is house sitting and wouldn’t mind having an apartment of her own, but that she knew her husband wanted her with her son and that is where she’d stay.
It was neat.
Bless someone by just listening to their story. There is so much sadness in the world. So many lonely people… Surely we have an hour or two once-in-a-while to spare. I love stories like this. She must have known I needed her as much as she needed me.
Love and blessings,
LadyEm
LadyEm ~ Under Mary's Mantle 