A BLESSING FROM GOD:
This week our two daughters, decided they would clean out their homes, and wanted to combine their things and some of mine and have an impromptu yard sale. Funny thing about these sales, going to them is always so much fun and if by chance we stumble on to some quaint little things, some little vintage Tom & Jerry Jelly glass, well it’s what I refer to as a red-letter day. Yes, going to them is great fun, and in all honesty we three woman have discovered that the best ones tend to be the ones where there the people do not have time to make big fancy signs or don’t have time to post it all on social media. Nor do they have time to organize and price every tiny piece of clothing or plastic cup as if they were selling bits of silver.
We set up on my oldest daughter’s house for accessibility to an open garage, and we ceremoniously hauled truck loads to her place. The sale began on Wednesday, then came Thursday and by Friday, well we are all tired of moving things in each night. There are seven children who are way over this yard sale thing, and they are ready to have their summer days back. Though the older they get the more help they are to all of us. Carrying things, doing the math, watching the sale while we make lunch. It really is a fun little project to work together on.
On Friday a woman stopped by the sale. She and her friend looked all around the things that we left and by this time my daughters were ready to make deals to get things moved. The younger woman said she had lived in the house almost 50 years ago. While they visited, and explored all we had set up, they noticed we had a twin bed, spring and mattress for free. “Susan” mentioned she had an elderly friend that was moving into an apartment and nothing to move into. She knew she would really appreciate having that twin bed and it was just what she was hoping to find, but she didn’t know how she could get the bed to her.
My kindhearted daughters ask where the new apartment was, turned it out it the next town over about ten miles so my girls offered to deliver the bed that Friday evening to Susan’s friend after the sale was closed. Immediately after they delivered the bed and placed it in the older woman’s new apartment, they called me from their truck and suggested that I donated a table and 2 chairs, a dresser, and end table and some other things that the three of us still at the sale.
So, on Saturday at high noon, at noon, my BEAUTIFULLY KIND, LOVING DAUGHTERS, Tonya & Cate, and their daughters, Allyson, Alaina, and Emma and I loaded up the truck and drove more furniture to Miss Johnnie Mae. We also took a new crocheted Afghan that my mom had just given me, and we took along small dishes, some good pots and pans.
Johnnie Mae turned 96 in January, and she is the sweetest lady. She had her own home, but her family had moved in with her so many years ago, she decided at her age to let them have her house. It was time to be somewhere smaller, a little quieter and she knew some of the folks that lived in this nice apartment complex already. She can cook for herself and be very content or just open her east door that opens into a nice hallway to a laundry area she can partake of community meals if she wants to. She had a grace and beauty about her that just radiated from within her. And she loved the Lord.
Also in the photo is Johnnie’s nice, Stella Mae.
We all stood around this small, but quaint little apartment for 2 hours chatting with Johnnie Mae and Stella. WHAT A GIFT, A TRUE BLESSING FOR US.
These ladies were kind, and appreciative, and as we were leaving everyone was shaking hands, and hugging, and those two women were saying ” I love you” too all of us, and we were saying it right back.!!! Complete strangers hours ago now loving one another. That the GOOD STUFF life can be made of.
I called all the girls back inside and ask the ladies if I could take a photo, because while WE KNOW and understand the beauty of a visit like this that was PLANNED BY GOD, I knew our ” little girls” will never forget this day and I wanted to be sure they had a photo to put with their memory. One day they will recall all six of us driving to Cassopolis and carrying all these things into a stranger’s home and how sweet and loving the people were. What a great lesson for them to carry all their years.
There is genuine goodness, kindness, and new love in these photos. Everyone is happy and thrilled to have met each other.
Tonight, as looked at these pictures over again, l saw Tonya and Miss Stella holding hands. Strangers just 24 hours ago.
How precious to meet folks like this, folks that put the heart back into you, makes you believe the world isn’t such a bad place, and that beauty can still be found when your eyes are open to it.
I have always been proud of our three children. They have all grown into really great adults, great parents and not one of them has ever been selfish, rude, or haughty. Never acted as if they were better than anyone else. Thats not to say they don’t have a bit of my temper when I have been walked on a bit, but they are truly good people. Today, as a momma I was able to sit back for a moment and witness not only my daughter’s kindness and gentleness towards these women, but they were also setting YET ANOTHER fine example for their daughters.
This momma, the writer of this blog…….. feels PROUD and very BLESSED.