My Friends Gift

My 40th birthday was last September. One of my friends gave a gift certificate to a local spa for a present. The service consisted of a massage and some other treatments. Being a working mother, I had not found the time to use this lovely gift...

Well, my kids went to visit my parents and my husband went on a business trip so I finally had some time where I didn't have to account to anyone. I made my appointment and went to the spa.

It was a heavenly experience, to be pampered and made much of. My visit was however, conscious of the fact that my friend had died about 6 weeks earlier, most unexpectedly.

I had decided that to honor the gift certificate was a way of honoring her memory and the generous spirit she had always shown in life. I made sure to think of her and be grateful to the thoughtfulness this gift represented during the process. After I was done I was getting dressed and replacing my jewelry when I dropped the back off of my new earrings. I heard it hit the counter in the dressing room, then immediately began to search for it. I could not find it and I am an experienced contact lens wearer, accustomed to full scale search missions.

The maid in the spa found me on the floor seeking the earring back, and got a broom and some rubber gloves to check the floor and the trash bin. We looked for at least 10 minutes. She swept the floor carefully and took everything out of the trash - no luck. I had decided that it had bounced and gone down a drain and I was resigning myself to a permanent loss. Then I thought, "Please help me. Please help me find it". I'm not sure to whom I directed my plea but as I turned around I saw the earring back glinting off the floor, in a spot I know would have been obvious. I said to the maid "There it is" and our eyes met. I said, "That was not there before". She said "I know. I went over that area with the broom carefully." We both agreed that something very strange had happened.

I don't know if it was my friend helping me or not, but I like to think she was so concerned I that I should have a perfect experience that she would not let even so small a thing as a lost earring back affect it.