Crossing Paths.....

A deer ran out in front of my car today. It was a doe, she was as tall as my car. I came around a turn at a street light and started to speed up to 35mph. Out of the corner of my right eye I saw this very tall brown thing move past the tree line and then into my path on the road. When I tell you seconds, I mean maybe one second difference that I missed clipping her back leg. As she gracefully galloped across this two lane country road, I had no time to even touch the break. My adrenaline kicked in and before I knew it she was gone. I won't forget what she looked like, and that the entire moment she passed my car...her eye was on me.

Not too long before my intersection with the majestic doe, I stopped at a local convenient store to get a snack and a cherry diet coke for my afternoon drive. Walking towards the double doors of the bustling place, I noticed an older man leaning against the concrete wall with a cane in his one hand and a glazed donut in the other. He was putting most of his weight on his cane as he shoved half the donut in his mouth. He wore a bright orange hat that read the words "Semper Fi Marine" on it. As I approached the area where he stood, he looked up and me and said "Hi, how ya doing?". I smiled, said hello and walked inside. This man reminded me of my Mom's father...Pop-Pop, he looked around the same age. I knew that when I came out of the store that I would say hello again, with a purpose.

As I roamed the convenient store hunting for a snack, I began to think about my grandfather who had passed several years ago. Pop used to walk every day to Greeman's, a local market, around a half a mile from their home. My earliest memories as a small child were of him taking me there for trips during the day, he would always buy me a scratch off lottery ticket...while he tried to win big at the Pick Six. Everyone in Greeman's new him by Harry. As I grew older we still walked to that same store to get those lotto tickets... even the coming weeks before he died. When my grandfather passed there was a line out the door of the funeral pallor. The young girls who worked at Greeman's came to say goodbye, as they crying they placed some lottery tickets by his side. It was a beautiful moment for my entire family. Harry may not have ever struck it rich in the lottery, however end the end...he won. Harry meant so much to everyone he met because he cared. He cared about his neighbors, he cared about a stranger on the street, and most of all his family. I remember how important it was for Pop to speak to everyone he crossed paths with each day.

Upon exiting the convenient store today, the man in the "Semper Fi" orange hat stood staring out to the road. I asked him if he was a Marine. He said yes, looking at me bewildered....I asked when he served....."1942 to 46", he said with hesitation....I smiled....so did my grandfather I spoke. He told me about being stationed over in the South Pacific. Afterwards, he said something that struck me..."I almost forgot that I served over there, it was so long ago I can't remember that well." And yet he was wearing that orange hat. As we spoke I told him about both my grandfathers both serving in the military and when I brought home sand from the beaches of Normandy, France for them. He smiled. I listened as he spoke about his experience as a marine. At the end of our conversation, we say goodbye....I thanked him for serving and he looked at me with a crooked smiled...and said "you have a nice day miss".

Its so easy to cross paths with hundreds of people in a day. Today I stopped to say hello to a man that gave me back a piece of my grandfather whom I loved very dearly. This man will hopefully go home with a new recollection today of talking about his days serving our country, and a stranger who thanked him for it.

Crossing paths with a stranger....with a doe....and finding meaning in it....gives me the strength to allow me to hope for anything....And It is with this hope that someday soon, Andrew and I will cross paths with the life of one child.