Opportunities Come in the Strangest Places

I’ve repeated this story on here numerous times and I apologize if it’s old and boring to some but even thinking about this entire incident still gives me chills. This was originally posted on March 1, 2005 so these children are all grown now; even the four year old will be about 19.

Even reading this post, 15 years after having written it, there are still tears. I’ve thought about this family so often through the years.

Would a quilt change the life of a child who has recently lost his/her mom? Doubtful. But, the fact that I read the obituary, which I don’t normally do; knew few people in that town but knew that my haircut lady went to the same church; that our dentist could fix Chad’s cavity the next day instead of the weeks or months we normally had to wait; and being back there that day I’d have interaction with these people – the meeting wasn’t for their benefit; it was for my benefit. The quilts didn’t change their lives but it did have an impact on my own life.

Here’s the blog post from March 1, 2005.

Some time last year, early Spring I know now, I read in the paper about a fairly young mother of four children, pregnant with her fifth child who had died. The paper listed the church she attended and it happened to be the same church the girl who cuts my hair attends so I asked Robin about this lady. She told me that it was really sad. The lady homeschooled her 3 school age children, got sick and there were complications and she just died — something fairly simple that affected her heart as I recall.

Then in January (2005) I was at the dentist with my son for a checkup. Our dentist is always so busy and it takes forever to get an appointment. Chad had a cavity and as we were leaving and I was trying to make an appointment after school, they told me they had a cancellation for “tomorrow”. I hesitated — who wants to go to the dentist two days in a row — but went ahead because it would probably have been 6 months before I could have gotten another appointment.

So, back to the dentist on Tuesday afternoon. We walked in and there was an older lady (not really old but I doubted the children were her children) sitting there with three children. I just KNEW those children belonged to the lady who died. I don’t know how I knew it but I did. The children were well mannered and very cute.

The dental assistant called for “Anna” and the lady told her that Anna would be coming with her dad so they took back another child. Then dad came in with Anna, a lively 4 year old. The lady explained to me that he was her brother and the children were his children. I guess she thought I might wonder why she left when dad arrived.

While waiting for Chad, I was working on binding on a quilt. Anna walked over and commented on the quilt. Dad said something like “Mom would like that. She loved quilts.” Anna said “Oh, dad. . you know mom is far, far away in heaven!”

Ughhh, now I KNEW it was those kids. So, the next day I called the dentist and inquired. Yes, those were the children whose mom had died. I told them I wanted to make quilts for the kids but I wanted to drop them at the dentist office because I didn’t want them to know who had given the quilts.

Then, I’m nosey so I went back and found the obituary in the newspaper archives online. Get this: The mom’s maiden name . . full name . . first, middle and last was the same as my first, middle and last maiden name — Judy Lynn Miller! How weird is that?

Think I was at the dentist office two days in a row for a reason?