In today's society, this miracle is more of an experience , than when people used to be responsible and honest.

Usualy there is absolutely nothing on my mind worth sharing, at least, nothing good.
Tonight I have to report an absolute miracle.

I went to my least favorite place in the world, (that is, other than any  portapotty located anywhere) WalMart.  I bought a number of large items, including some plastic bins, toilet tissue, paper towels, and so on.  I cannot walk WalMart most of the time so I was riding in one of those electric buggies with the basket in front.

I usually put the strap of my purse over the little handlebars of the cart and let it rest on the floor of the cart, between my feet.  I did so tonight.

It being the 1st of July and being on Social Security, needless to say, I have very little in  my bank account, so I broke into my burial fund and "borrowed" $100. which I will return when my SS check comes in on the third.

Nothing interesting so far.  Right.

I had the five twenty dollar bills in my wallet, along with about twenty dollars including one ten dollar bill, I think a five dollar bill and several ones.  My wallet was inside my purse while I was shopping.

At the check out counter, we realized that the large items I had bought could not fit into the electic cart's basket and that I would need to have a regular cart to tow behind me until I got to the exit.

In a hurry to get out of the way of people standing behind me, when I paid the cashier, I gave  her the hundred dollars, and put the change in my pocket and stuck this large wallet in my jacket pocket.  Then I towed the regular basket behind me to the parking area for the electric carts, and transferred the other large items out of the electric cart and into the regular carts, just as my son was coming in from the parking lot to help me get the buggy out.

We drove  home with the change still  in my pocket and my purse sitting on the car floor, came in , put the food away, ate a sandwich, went in to watch some tv.

At approximately 1 a.m., my companion (who has the front bedroom) comes to my room and tells me that there is someone in the living room who has my driver's license and wants to see me.  I came into the unlit living room (except for the computer lamp) and saw outlined by the front porch light, what appeared to be a police officer, gun and all, asking me for my birthdate.

I answered all his questions, and then he asked if we could turn on a light in the living room.  We did, and he held out to me my WALLET (Which, until that moment I had forgotten I had thoughtlessly left in my jacket pocket) and asked if I recognized it.
I was in a state of shock.

That I had forgotten to put it back in my purse, that I hadn't felt it fall out of the jacket pocket, that it  had actually been returned?  Everything was in it.  My medical alert, my driver's license, my debit card, my Medicare and Medicaid cards, and then he asked me to check the money to see if it was there.

I checked the money and it had three ten dollar bills, a five, and a bunch of ones.
The other change and the receipt were still in my  pants pocket.  I don't think I had two of those three tens when I left home.  So it appears that  whoever found the wallet, added two tens to the wallet before they turned it over to the police.

I asked him if he had the name of the person who turned it over to him, and he said he did not.  He said it was two elderly ladies who had spotted him, parked in a shopping mall down the street from Walmart.

Now, I don't know what you designate as a miracle, but this event will go down in my life as a ppersonally experienced  miracle.  I've been mugged twice, and I've lost a wallet once before, but never one that had so much information or value.   I don't think I would have been capable of surviving the stress of getting a new ID, new debit card, new FS card, new medical insurance cards and auto insurance cards.  I'm pushing at the limit of my endurance now.   So this miracle was and will be much appreciated.

I wanted to share this with as many people as possible, so I decided to do it this way.  Thanks, two elderly  ladies.  You've made my lifetime.  If such an experience happens to you, if you are, or when you are, at my age and my state of health,  you will understand how gratitude feels when someone has really done that random act of kindness, otherwise known as "the right thing," because they were there THEN, and had the opportunity and the ability.    What wonderful people those ladies must be.  I wish I knew who they were.

jd

 

 

What a wonderful ending to your story. What wonderful ladies to find a policeman to give your wallet to.  How very lucky for you.
 I have been the victim of identity theft after being robbed at gun point in 2002 and went through much unpleasantness for months and months. 

Something better still has happened.  Apparently one of the ladies checked my Medic Alert info and got the phone number of my companion.  She called here about half an hour ago, while I was taking a Sunday nap, and talked to him.  And it is so good that she did, because she doesn't live here in Columbia. 

She lives in a little town right near Asheville, NC, which is, co-incidentally, right next to the town where my ex-husband and his daughter and grandson live.  So, I have her phone number, and you can bet I am going to call her.

Thanks for sharing thanks for my very unusually good fortune.  Something very rare, I think, for all of us, in her returning the wallet and the police officer following through.  I was, indeed, very, very fortunate that she was the one found it.

jd

I just talked to her and she was glad I called to thank her.  The other lady with her, she said, was her sister.  I asked her if it was okay to mention her name if I wrote a letter to her home town newspaper, and she said it was.  I also told her I had posted what happened on Facebook as well as a couple of other groups, and she said she wouldn't mind if I mentioned her name there, either.

So her name is Arlita Miles, of Henderson, NC, which I learned is not near the town where my ex- lives, but is near Durham, NC. 

Ms. Miles said she "promotes Gospel music," and she and  her sister came here, to Columbia, SC. to attend a Gospel music concert.  I'm averse to putting out her phone number because of possible internet shenanigans.  

Now I've got to look up the City of Henderson, NC and see what is the name of the newspaper.

The editor of the newspaper called me this morning to confirm the story and said the newspaper publishes Letters to the Editors only on Wednesday and Sunday, and he said he's going to schedule publishing this letter for next Sunday.  I forgot to ask him to please send me a copy of the paper, but I'll just look it up on line.  lol. 

If I were younger and had a few more square inches of vacant wall space I would probably frame it and  hang it so I would never, ever forget her name.  Everytime I think of what a difference she made in my life, at this particular time, I find it almost scary.  The alternative would have been brutal to bear.

My faith in the average American citizen's ability to put themselves in the shoes of others, and acting to make it easier for all to live in peace has been sorely tested....oh, hell... let me speak plainly.  I had lost the ability to trust anyone, and I do mean anyone, to give a damn about anyone other than themselves, and am being dragged, kicking and screaming, into absolute misanthropy  (If you can't lick 'em, join 'em.  And play by the rules.  And go with the flow.)  hoping someone would throw me a rope before I went over the edge.  I may still go over, but I can go more hopefully knowing my life was touched by someone who gave a damn about a stranger.

There are people like that all around you.

Wow a true good news story. I really needed to read that today...thanks for sharing!

JD they say that good things come in threes. Be prepared for one more.