Interesting Conversation #1

At the checkout line at the funeral/going-out-of-business sale there was an older lady in front of me. She looked to be approaching 70. She tried to get me to leave the line to go get some pancake syrup for her. Since I was the one person in the line carrying my groceries in a hand-held basket instead of a cart, my arms were really tired, and the next lady in line behind me was trying to move in on my spot (seriously!), and I did NOT want to run the risk of losing my place in line, thus bumping myself back behind about 5 people with full carts, I did something very out of character for me. I pretended I didn't really know what she wanted, but told her I'd be happy to watch her cart so she could go get it herself.

Call it setting boundaries, if you will.

Once she got her syrup and got back into line in front of me, she turned to me and said, "You know, you can't always trust people with your cart."

I'm not really sure what she meant by that, but I said, "So did you think I looked pretty trustworthy?" :)

She grinned and patted my arm and said that she did. She had been sure she could trust me with her cart.

I told her that I felt I was a pretty trustworthy person, and that I even had six kids. Old folks usually love to get talking about large families, so it tends to make a good conversation starter.

But this lady surprised me. She said, "Oh! I feel so sorry for you." And she said it like she really meant it.

Thankfully, after the morning I was having there at the bone-picking of the store, this just didn't hit me as being a big deal. I just said, "Really? Why would you feel sorry for me? I have six of the most wonderful children in the world!"

She shook her head and told me that she couldn't imagine how I do it all. We chatted a bit, and she said that she supposed that actually I was very, very blessed. I told her that I am one of the most blessed people she will ever meet. She smiled. She shared with me that she had always wanted to have a baby, but it had never happened for her. She said that she had cried about it for years. Then she said sadly, "I guess God knows best."

I really didn't know what to say to that. Yes, God knows best! God decided that you shouldn't be blessed with any children, and I deserved six. Not.

That was the only part of the conversation that left me speechless.