Tonight after leaving work late I went to Wal Mart in Decatur to find some baby shower gifts for one of my best employees who is expecting her first child on October 27. I came armed with a printout of the list of items for which she and her husband had registered. My first step was to ask someone in customer service how to find out which items remained to be purchased off the list. I entered the data on the screen and retrieved the printout. I headed to the infants section thinking this would be a piece of cake. Wrong.
I could not seem to match the cryptic abbreviations on the printout with the items on the shelf. I walked around the infant section patiently several times and could not find an employee to help. I decided to wander around to neighboring sections. I finally saw an employee who didn't seem overly busy and asked her for help. She tried, but bless her, she really wasn't much help. She mistook the abbreviation for a "tub" of baby wipes for a bathing tub. At that point I knew I was in trouble!
About that time a really nice looking, well-dressed, professional-looking, cute lady with her work badge still attached looked like she needed help. She smiled really big at me and the Wally World lady and said she needed help finding a stroller with a cover. I smiled at her and said that I had already claimed the worker from another section. She smiled back.
After minimal help from the employee I continued to walk aimlessly around the infant section. Uncharacteristically, I spoke to the lady who smiled at me and asked if she found what she was looking for. She did, but she had more than she could hold and dropped several items. I helped her pick her items up and she asked if I found what I needed. I explained my predicament and she offered to help.
She spent a good 15 minutes giving me (a single guy, years out of touch with baby stuff) some really good help and advice on items to purchase. She helped me find several items on my list and a few surprises.
Her kindness, sweet disposition, friendliness, and smile meant a lot to me. She stood close to me as we compared items to the list. At some point I thought about how nice and how cute she was. Then I looked at her finger. She had a wedding band and engagement ring on her finger.
I had almost thought that I should introduce myself and ask her for her name and number until I saw that she was married.
I will never see this "angel" again. It was a good experience for me though. I have always been very shy and insecure. I dated only about four people in my life and I have been divorced now for 6 years. I sometimes wonder if I will ever find someone who will love me and I can love for the rest of my life. This was good for my self esteem and hope.
The Lord will handle that! It may very well be that He wants me to be single the rest of my life. If so, that's great. There are moments, though, like tonight, that give me the thought that He might send someone my way in a most serendipitous fashion.
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3 comments:
The way you started out, I thought this was going to end differently. Obviously you did, too! Any way, you chose a really positive way of looking at it. Most guys (probably myself included, were I single) would have just been heartbroken the rest of the night and felt sorry for themselves.
Now, I wasn't clear on this: So she was cute?
How did you think it would end? With us walking off into the sunset?!? The sun was going down about that time, but I walked into the sunset alone.
I must not have made myself clear. She was very, very cute!
Okay. Because you only said it like three times, whereas kindness made an appearance twice in one sentence. Just making sure! ;-)
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