I was thinking about mom this morning and remembering the night she died. Chuck called to talk. He said mom wasn't doing well and when the time came he wasn't sure how to tell me. I said, "When you call just ask me if I'm sitting down. That way you won't have to say the words." We talked a few more minutes and he hung up. About four or five minutes later the phone rang again. Caller ID showed it was Chuck and I laughed and asked, "Now what do you want?" He said, "Are you sitting down?" I did and said, "I am now".
I called in to Walmart to let them know why I wouldn't be there for a few days. I spoke to a co-worker and she said she'd tell a manager and she was sorry. I always liked working with her because she wasn't lazy like some of the others.
The day after I got back I went to work and my first customer was a little old man. While I was ringing him up one of the csm's came over and started giving me crap about being gone and not calling in. I told her I had. She called me a liar. I stopped working and told her again that I had. That I had talked to someone and told this someone about what happened and that I wouldn't be in. (I didn't name her. I didn't want her to get in trouble.) She continued to call me a liar right there in front of that old man. And when she was finally done she flew away on her broom. (I admit that I hated her after that. I still do and I'm not sorry.) I finished his order and he paid. He didn't speak but he didn't walk away.
I apologized to him for what had happened, then suddenly I burst into tears. The old man just stood there not saying anything. Then he reached out, he was holding a little book. He took my hand and quietly said, "You need this more than I do.", then he walked away.
I don't remember if I thanked him, only that there was more crying. I never saw him again. He was just a little old man that passed through my life, that cared about me, about my pain.
There are lots of things in my life that I know I don't remember. I try to think back and pull them out. They absolutely refuse to come into the light. But my mama, that little old man and that little book, The New Testament, will always be with me. It's been over twenty years and I carry that little book with me everywhere I go. God truly is good.