Saturday, November 16, 2013

Saturday story

Do you have time for a story?
Mark and I had spent several days cleaning out his Mother's house on our last time to Norfolk. Anyone who has been through this knows how difficult and daunting a task it is to go through a love ones things after they are no longer with you.
I will spare you the details, but let you know that this house is coming back around to the point where it will be a great house for a family to live in.
We had made plans to have dinner with my mother, who no longer cooks, and can not get out for dinner any more.  Instead we had planned on going to get take out and bring it back for her, us and my nephew who lives with her.
 This would be a nice break for all of us. We were dog tired and my nephew would have a night off out of the kitchen since he is now the cook in the house.
There is a great burger place that opened in the past year or so that we all like. Mark and I went into the bar, sat down, asked for a menu and then proceeded to figure out what we wanted. There was a man sitting to Mark's right who chimed in to our conversation when we asked the bartender some questions.
It turned out that he ate there enough to have tried most of the items on the menu.
He gave us some sound advice and we took it.
While we waited for our food we both ordered a beer.
We were tired, dirty and worn out.
We talked to each other and also with the man at the end of the bar.
Maybe he saw something in us that we did not perceive because when the food came and we tried to pay the bartender put his hands up and said, " it's taken care of ".
What? "No, really it is paid for, It has all been taken care of ".

We looked at one another and then turned to the man and the end of the counter,
he smiled and said, " Enjoy your food, I love this place and want to share that with you, my treat".
We were stunned and then stepped over to thank him, fishing a business card out of my bag I handed it to Mark.
He placed it in his hand and said, "take a trip to see us, we would love to give you a piece of pottery".
He smiled and said, "I would like that".
We smiled all the way to the car.
This happened to us in others ways each time we ate out while we were there.
Lunch the next day the waitress bought Mark a beer.
 At dinner, the night before we left, with our daughter and family we were given an appetizer on the house.

It was just one of those small acts of kindness shown on a hard visit home.
It stayed with us and made us remember to look a little harder and be a little kinder with the people around you. You never know what type of day they are having.

The burger place... here you go.


 M


22 comments:

Dennis Allen said...

What a beautiful story.

Michèle Hastings said...

smiling.

cookingwithgas said...

thanks Dennis and MH- still makes me smile....

Dan Finnegan said...

Very Sweet!

Tracey Broome said...

Karma. :-)
You both have a lot of the good kind coming your way!
And that heart is beautiful, I see an etsy shop full for February.....

cookingwithgas said...

aw, thanks Dan.
And Tracey, you know sometimes there are gifts where you least expect them.

MasBlancPottery said...

Acts of kindness, warms your heart.Thanks for sharing it wrmed mine. Adrian.

Laurie said...

Thanks for telling these beautiful stories. The world really can be a pretty awesome place.

John Bauman said...

Thanks, Meredith. That sure warmed my heart.

XOXO,
John

cookingwithgas said...

this is like having all the kindness wash over us again. Thank you!

Anna M. Branner said...

Such a lovely story. Thank you for sharing...I had a rough family weekend myself. This post makes me so happy.

Peter said...

Sorry that you are having a tough time, but pleased to read that you found kindness when you needed it most. That burger place really knows how to do comfort food!

Trish said...

Always have time for a great story :). I was to be in my hometown this weekend to help my sister set up items from my Mom's house that will be included in an auction tomorrow. A winter storm has prevented us from going.. It is the final part in an era, but thankfully Mom is still with us. Times like this are hard and such kind people lighten the load. T.

Sandy Miller said...

What a wonderful story....... What goes around come around and I'd say you guys have a bushel full coming. This was my first read of the morning :)

Shannon said...

Well told, quietly offered. Thanks for the story and the reminder, Meredith. Sounds like an important transition was GRACE-fully eased along.

Gail said...

Random Acts of Kindness. How lovely to be the recipient.

xoxog

Judy Shreve said...

Wonderful story - renews my belief that folks really are kind. Hugs to you guys as you go through this difficult time.

cookingwithgas said...

Hello all. There are so many life lessons to learn that I think I will save a few for the next round. One that I have been working on is how to accept kindness and how to just say, thank you.

Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen said...

fantastic! i love this. My neighbor, a school teacher, just told me that a former student's parents showed up at her classroom last week and handed her a thank you card and a starbucks gift card. Their kid has not been in her class for years but apparently she made an impression upon the family. It was their 20th wedding anniversary and rather than buying each other gifts, they decided to buy small gifts for 20 people who were meaningful in their lives. Good stuff. Makes me hopeful for us all.

Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen said...

I love that little heart too! So lovely!

cookingwithgas said...

Oh, Claudia what a great idea.

Gary's third pottery blog said...

A man who had been some tremendously hard times in life told me last spring "the universe is a generous place" which astounded me :) Love your story, because sometimes the universe IS.