I was on my way home from a grocery run, when I saw it. A garage sale sign! A sharp right and an open parking spot – and twenty minutes before the next in-home appointment.
As I walked up the driveway I spotted a basket full of stuffed toys. Not something I usually buy at a garage sale, but I wandered that direction.
A small girl was nearby and watched as I studied the contents of the table. I noticed a ladybug in the basket and a bright idea struck. No music, no flashes of lightning – but the ladybug was in my hand. The little girl looked stricken and I almost put it back.
Then her mother appeared and said something to the child, who nodded. Mom looked at me and smiled. She said, she wants you to have it.
I said, “I am buying it for a grandpa who has a problem when he sleeps. His hand closes so tightly that it hurts and leaves fingernail marks right here.” And I swiped a finger across my palm. “If he holds this, while he sleeps, it will make his hand feel better.”
Mom explained that her daughter wanted a new toy and the deal was that she needed to sell some of the old ones that she didn’t play with now that she was bigger. The girl nodded solemnly.
I asked, is it okay if I buy this. She nodded again.
I laid the ladybug on the table, while I opened my purse. She picked up the ladybug, gave it a hug and handed it to me. I said “thank you, I know the grandpa will like this a lot.”
Mom mouthed thank you over the child’s head as she took the two bills from my hand.
I turned and walked back down the driveway. That’s when I heard the music and felt the golden glow.
And the grandpa did indeed like the ladybug. It replaced a rolled up washcloth that was usually loose in the bed by morning. The ladybug fit perfectly in his hand so fingernails could not dig into his palm. It was still there in the morning. And Justin found the minion for the other hand, which delighted Wheels as he recognized it from the movie we had just watched on tv.
There were a number of other hand fillers purchased as the disease progressed and the hand contracture worsened in both hands. They all worked but those two were the favorites. I threw them in the laundry with the towels and the toys all thrived.
Then we put them in a box for the littlest members of the family who picked their favorites at a family gathering after Wheels was done with them. Bugs Bunny rolled out from under the bed a few days later.
These favorites still set by his bedside, though. And there is a golden glow and faint music when I see them still.
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