Last night I was thinking about the nice people I met on the trip to North Carolina with Sarah. It's interesting how people will just tell perfect strangers their stories. There were at least four people I met on the trip that told their stories.
In Oaklahoma, the motel desk attendant was a nice woman in her late sixties or early seventies. She worked the late evening shift at the desk. Sarah and I went down stairs to explore the hotel a little bit and she was taking a coffee break. She had a thick Southern drawl. She said, "I don't know how anybody can stand to drink coffee! I've been trying to drink this stuff and it tastes just like burned beans!" We laughed about that and talked about how we like to "dress our coffee up" so it tastes good. Then she went on to ask us where we were from. We told her we lived on the Idaho border in Washington State. She asked us if we ever knew of any one with a particular last name. I can't remember what the name was now that she said. We said, "No." Then she went on to tell her story. When she was 17 years old this 24 year old young man had come out to North Carolina on a mission (an LDS mission). The two of them fell in love and they wanted to get married and move back to Idaho together. She said her parents would not hear a thing of it and forbade her to marry the man, saying she was far too young for that.
Broken hearted, she said goodbye to him and he moved back to Idaho with the promise that in a few years when she was older he would come back for her. They wrote back and forth or a while and then the letters stopped coming. She never heard what happened or why he stopped writing, but she just knew down deep they belonged together. Years came and went. She married someone else and that marriage failed. She married again and that marriage failed too. She never married again, but all this time she kept asking everyone she came across if they had heard of this person in Idaho. She searched the internet and could not find him, but she still feels down deep in her soul that they were meant to be together. It was a sad story and I felt kind of sorry for this sweet lady pining away for her first love.
The next people I met who told me their stories were on my trip back home. I was stuck over night at the Salt Lake Airport when a Honduran woman sat down next to me. She didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish, so we struck up conversation using Google Translate. She told me that her husband had died three years ago and that she missed him so much. He died suddenly. Her husband left a big void in her life, but she was so excited because her daughter is pregnant and this little baby was filling the void for her that her husband left. She has four children. Two are doctors and two are teachers. She showed me all of her family photos, naming each of her childen for me as she pointed to each one. Her face just beamed with pride as she talked about her family. She, herself is a teacher, so she also showed me pictures of her students. I saw all of the wedding photos of her daughters and she showed me all of the baby clothes she has bought for the new baby that is on the way.
Her phone rang and since she was talking for a while, I got very tired as it was late, so I laid down on the floor, using my backpack as a pillow and tried to get some sleep. I think I dozed, but when I started to change positions she tapped me on the shoulder and insisted I use her leather jacket as a pillow and the fuzzy baby blanket she bought for warmth. She was such a nice lady. Very caring. When it was time for her to leave we shook hands and she said, "God bless you" as she left.
The next person I met was on the flight out of Salt Lake to Seattle. This lady sat across the isle from me on the plane. She told me she was on her way to CA for an appointment with a well known (but not well known to me) orthopedic surgeon. I guess he takes care of professional football players. She needed to have his professional opinion for a law suit she was involved in regarding a fall she took in a grocery store. The fall tore her knew pretty badly and had to have major surgery to repair it, but the store owners were refusing to pay for her medical care becuase they didn't think what she had done or was having done was necessary.
After hearing all about her knee and lawsuit troubles she then produced her photos on her mobile phone and began telling me all about her family. She was particularly proud of her daughter who was a cake decorator. She showed all the cakes her daughter had decorated. There were some intricately decorated cakes in the bunch. Very artistic. We wished each other well after our flight and went our separate ways.
My flight from Seattle to Lewiston was delayed. I was tired of sitting, but I was just tired period. So I found the device that they measure carryon luggage with and leaned on it with my head on my arms, thinking I could catch a few zzz's while standing. A man walked by and asked if I was comfortable. I explained I had been sitting forever and didn't feel like sitting more, but that I had been up all night and was tired. We struck up a conversation. He was on his way back home to Kalispell, MT. He was on his second marriage. When he married this wife, they made a deal. She would come live where he worked and give up space for her horses until he retired. Then when he retired he promised to buy a place where the climate was mild and there was lots of space for her to ride her horses. He was on his way back home after purchasing the promised property in the high desert of Utah. He said his wife was happy because now she would have lots of room for her horses and it was a private area where there would be lots of peace and quiet. After telling me his story, he waved and said, "God bless you!"
It is kind of amazing to me how strangers will open up and tell their stories. It's like they just want someone to talk to and who will listen to them. I know you have to be careful these day who you talk to and all. But I must say that sometimes you can meet the nicest people along the way and it seems to make their day when we are just wiling to take the time and listen to their stories.
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