People are so good! I had an experience today that cause my eyes to leak and my voice to disappear.
As you are aware, my husband’s lung cancer has been a bit of a journey. Eating has been one of our biggest struggles; so, when I find something that he likes, I buy all of it. Unfortunately, his tastes change and I am left with a case of Vienna Sausages, 6 pints of Graeter’s Peach ice cream, 2 boxes of Fig Newtons… I do this because it seems like I go to the grocery every day and if I have something he likes on hand, maybe I won’t have to go EVERY DAY.
One of the things that Henry has teased me about for 30 years is that I like ‘sticks and twigs bread’, course, whole grain bread. We have laughed about it for years. Until, last week when our youngest daughter made him a piece of toast with jelly on some Ezekiel Bread — and he loved it! Amazing! After all these years of teasing. Well, pretty soon that loaf was gone and I headed out to the grocery. Trader Joe’s this time. I was checking out and the young lady at the register asked about the bread I was buying,”Is it gluten free or something special?” So I told her that my husband has lung cancer and has funny cravings ; recently, he has wanted ‘sticks and twigs bread’. And these days he gets anything he wants.
She finished my order and walked over to the floral display. She picked up a dozen red roses (Henry’s favorite color) and handed them to me saying, “We would love for your husband to have these flowers and I hope that he feels better soon.” I became choked up and my eyes began leaking; I could only mouth “thank you” as I picked up my grocery bag and headed to the car.
I sat in the car and cried for a while. I was so moved by this simple act. It was such a sweet gesture and Henry choked up too when I walked in with a gift of flowers from the grocery store clerk.
People are good!