So, I’m having a hard week. My job is awful, nobody warned me how horrible people can be around the holiday’s. Mess up their buy one get one free offer and their entire life is ending. The digital age has done nothing for humanity. I’ve been called everything you can think of and I’m the guy the calls get escalated too so I can only imagine what my front line folks are dealing with.
I looked at the calendar today and realized tomorrow is Friday the 13th and we have a full moon. No wonder everyone is nuts.
My baby boy T has been struggling with tummy issues off an on for the entire fall season. Every Wednesday like clock work I’ve started to expect that dreaded call of “mom, I’m sick”. This week did not disappoint. In fact, it was so bad we went to the pediatrician to have some lab work done. Is it wrong to pray for a parasite because the other alternatives are frightening?
So after a day of cleaning up puke, diarrhea and call center mess I just was really at my lowest point I’ve been at in a long while. I went downstairs to put laundry in the dryer and sitting on the lint trap was a penny and a quarter. 26 cents. I started to cry.
When Jerry died people told me I’d be left things that I couldn’t explain. Coins, feathers, seeing red birds, hawks, lots of stuff. Adam’s Nicole leaves him dimes. She started leaving me dimes when I was trying to decide to date him. I have at least 20 dollars in dimes from just her. I wasn’t to quick on the uptake that he liked me.
T and I started finding 26 cents right after Jerry died, it’s our sign that he’s here encouraging us to be amazing. I was reminded of the song the Wilkerson’s wrote in the 1990’s. Jerry loved music and he really appreciated a good lyric. This song was one he’d be singing full out when he pulled in the yard everyday so I know the 26 cents are from him. You just have to replace momma with daddy in these lyrics.
She sat alone on a bus out of Beaumont
The courage of just 18 years
A penny and quarter were taped to a letter
And momma’s goodbye in her ears
She watched as her high school faded behind her
And the house with the white picket fence
Then she read the note that her momma had wrote
Wrapped up with 26 cents
When you get lonely, call me
Anytime at all and I’ll be there with you, always
Anywhere at all
There’s nothing I’ve got that I wouldn’t give
And money is never enough
Here’s a penny for your thoughts
A quarter for the call
And all of your momma’s love
A penny and a quarter buys a whole lot of nothing
Taped to an old wrinkled note
And when she didn’t have much she had all momma’s love
Inside that old envelope
When you get lonely, call me
Anytime at all and I’ll be there with you, always
Anywhere at all
There’s nothing I’ve got that I wouldn’t give
And money is never enough
Here’s a penny for your thoughts
A quarter for the call
And all of your momma’s love
Oh its been years since momma’s been gone
But when she holds the coins she feels her love just as strong
When you get lonely, call
Song Credit Steve Wilkerson and William Wallace
I needed those coins on Wednesday, Jerry was telling me everything is going to be OK. Me, T, the call center people, even the customers who are freaking out. Christmas is going to happen whether we are happy, sad, healthy or lonely. It will be what we make of it, just like life.
As I was walking out of the laundry room something caught my eye in the doorway, a dime. Both of our angels are close by. I like to think Jerry and Nicole are friends on the other side like Adam and I are here.
Enjoy the crazy that is Friday the 13th and be kind to retail worker’s everywhere.
Fiddle Dee Dee 