Life lessons in the card section at Walmart

Yesterday I went to Walmart to develop a picture for my mother-in-law's birthday gift. I was in a crazy rush, trying to get my errands done as quickly as I could because I just wanted to be at home with my family. I made a point to keep my head down and motor it, avoiding eye contact at all costs with everyone around me. 

I was in the card section looking for a Birthday card. I was in my own little world without realizing that someone was standing very close next to me. An elderly gentleman began speaking to me. It honestly took me a minute to even clue in that I was being spoken too. He had a hard time speaking, his voice was merely a whisper. I had to lean in really closely to hear what he was saying. 

He told me that he was picking out a birthday card for his daughter. I noticed a single card with a pink envelope in his cart. As his eyes watered he told me that his wife had passed away this past June, and he was not used to picking out cards. Wow. I was officially dropped dead in my tracks and brought back to the world of humanity. I asked him if it was his wife who had done the shopping for them; he said yes. I told him I was sure he had picked out a nice card that his daughter would like. He went to tell me that this was a difficult task because many of the cards read "from the both of us," and in his case, the card was no longer from the both of them. I suggested it still could be. Really, if this was my life and my dad gave me a card that said that, I know that I would be accepting and understanding of that. I probably would even say I would like it even more if it said that. The gentleman told me that he had been married for 47 years last October. He then spoke about where he had been this summer with family, and that he was at the store shopping with his other daughter and his son-in-law, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. He commented "it has been really hard on me." We ended the conversation by him thanking me for talking to him. He added, "sometimes it's nice to have someone to talk too."

We stood there for almost ten minutes, but I honestly would have stood there for a hour speaking with this man if he of needed me too. I left the store thinking... okay world... lesson learned. Let it be a lesson to me and to anyone who so graciously comes on my blog to see what I have been up too... when you are out in public take time to make eye contact with people, smile at people and acknowledge people, even if you are in a hurry, because you never know the awful time that someone standing right beside you is having, and is needing someone to talk too, and to listen. 

... and thanks for taking time to listen to me, my thoughts and what is important to me :)

We had a nice night celebrating my mother-in-law who is our "mommy-works-late-too-many-days-to-count" saviour who picks up Max from daycare on those crazy days.. and of course that is just one of the bazillion things she does for our family. She is a real life superhero :) We celebrated with dinner and Ombre cupcakes. 

One more cute pic... Max's new fall boots.. I couldn't resist, and he LOVES them :) He just starting saying "shoe!"

Have a great week everyone!

~ K