Good Story Today

I went to Independence today and had my hair done. Afterward I came home and read my blogs and then Bob and I went to the last of the Lenten Luncheons. It was excellent. The food was very good and the speaker, the Presbyterian woman minister, was also excellent. She told a story that proved to be a very good and true story.

Twenty years ago, she was Christina Education director at a Presbyterian Church in North Dakota. She was there with her youngest child who was a senior in high school. Her husband, who had been recently retired from an Air Force career, was in Kansas looking for work. They had bought land there and had every intention of moving there now that he was retired. Their middle child was in college far away and their eldest was far away too and in the middle of a divorce. She had a big house to sell and there were no buyers.

She was very depressed. Nothing was going well. She missed her husband, who was having a hard time finding a civilian job. She missed the middle child and she couldn't fix the marriage of the eldest. She felt her life was out of control.

The winter snow had begun to melt and with the melting, the roof at the church, and especially in the day care area began to leak. The roofers were there and beginning to put on the new roof. There was a lot of hammering and nailing going on that the noise was very bad. On top of that, the large old fashioned globe chandeliers were swinging with each hammer sound.

One day, one of the day care people from the church's day care was ill and she was asked to fill in for the day. She often did that. They had three and four year olds in that group. Miss Annie, the regular teacher called to the children to get prepared for their story time and the children took off their shoes and went to fetch their little quilted squares which they used to sit on for story time.

They sat in a semi circle and began listening as Miss Annie read the story for the day. Suddenly, Miss Annie asked the children to scoot up two scoots toward her. The helper looked up, wondering what had happened to cause the break in the story and the strange request. The children didn't miss a beat. They scooted twice and the story continued. They were, as usual enthralled. Miss Annie was a terrific story teller. She had been at it for twenty years.

Out of the corner of her eye, the helper (our speaker) saw something happen. One of the large globe chandeliers fell and landed exactly two scoots behind the children, shattering into dozens of pieces. The children didn't move. Calmly, Miss Annie finished the story and then told the children to very carefully move from their places, avoiding the broken glass, to a safe place in another corner of the room. She and her helper then cleaned up the broken glass and and delivered the children to their parents when they came to pick them up. They told the story of the incident to each parent, wanting to avoid a "guess what happened at school today" incident at home.

After all the children were gone, she turned to Miss Annie and asked "How on earth did you know that was going to happen?" "I haven't a clue", said Miss Annie. "It was as though a voice other then my own spoke those words".

The house sold right away after that. Her husband even found a job.

She received a card from Miss Annie as she was packing to leave and the card said, "We may never see one another again, but one thing we both know is that we witnessed a miracle together". She never saw Miss Annie after that but she also never forgot their experience.

Now Bob is taking his nap and I am blogging. Tonight we will do nothing at all.