The Brown Elephant
It becomes clearer and clearer to me that it is much more fun to tell you what happened last Saturday than what happened in my life years ago. So I'm quitting the story, Oleander Court, that someone quite different from who I am now wrote so many years ago.
Let me tell you what happened Saturday. It's a much better true story.
The Brown Elephant is right across the street from Whole Foods on Halstead in Chicago. I would never willingly go to Whole Foods without stopping at The Brown Elephant!
One day this week -- I'm coming to Saturday -- I spotted a cabinet that would be perfect for Lauren's big closet. It looked spanking new. It was white lacquer with a thin line of gold.
Lauren hasn't had a chest of drawers in her studio apartment, and her large walk-in closet would be the perfect place for it. Without a chest of drawers, she's been using bags, albeit beautiful bags to hold small items of clothing.
She really needed this cabinet. I paid for it and said I would pick it up on Saturday when Lauren could go with me. I was sure we could manage the cabinet ourselves. Lauren has a Pontiac Vibe. With the back seat folded down, there would be room for the cabinet.
When we went to The Brown Elephant on Saturday, however, we realized that, by ourselves, even with a dolly that the apartment complex would let us use, we would be unable to lift the cabinet onto the dolly and, further, be unable to lift it off from the dolly. The cabinet was heavier than I had thought.
At this moment a man, unaffiliated with the store, appeared and asked us if we needed help. We said yes, and he gladly did all the lifting and pulling and pushing and very nicely placed the cabinet into the closet for us.
Naturally, we paid him. At this point, he told us that all morning he had been praying that someone would come and want his help and he could earn some money, and then Lauren and I appeared. When he told us this, he had tears in his eyes, and we were happy too.
That was perfect, wasn't it? When there is a need, there is always someone to fulfill it. This man had us, and we had him. This did not have to be planned ahead of time. Someone always appears. Are we somehow angels who fulfill one another?
Comments
Yes, so perfect! Thanks so much for sharing it!
Love to you and all HL readers.
Bless you, m in la! Post often, okay?
That's a big cabinet! Or is it? If Teeny and Bujo were standing in front of it, how high would they reach?
What a beautiful true story!
Beloved One, in this photo, the cabinet looks bigger than it really is. I'm about 5', and the top of the cabinet comes to just under my lower lip, so I would guess it's about 4 and a half feet tall. The width is a little over a yard. The depth is about two feet. There are 4 shelves of various heights on each side of the cabinet. Does that help?
Bujo WAS in front of the cabinet, but, by the time I got the camera going, he had moved on! I missed a shot that could have answered your question!
5 feet! Do you come from the land of the little people? I have some family who are also from there.
Like your matriarch of a grandmother! Prema has everyone at her feet!
Thank you Gloria dear that was a story I loved and the man that came to help!!!!! WOW just out of the blue God came and helped. Just the right hight that cabinet you can see when it needs dusting, ours you have to put your finger across and than wash your hands which gives you time to forget so it gets dusted some other time. Love to All Jack
I lean toward the kind of dusting you speak of! Everyone can easily be distracted from dusting!
Mom forgot to tell the whole story. When the wonderful, helpful man said he had been praying that someone would need moving help, I told him that I had been praying that we would find someone to help us move the furniture.
And also he hugged us when he left. Chicago has very nice people.
I love this story!! This is what it is all about, isn't it?
And for the record Gloria, I like your current day stories. The Oleander Court feels so far removed from who you are today.
Much love,
Lynda
You are so right, Lynda. What was I thinking?!!! Thankfully, every day we grow. I begin to sense what God means when He says that the past never was.