Everyday Miracles|Believe in Miracles|Spirituality|Human|Love
Was the Miracle for Me or for the Stranger That Saved Me?
Everyday Miracles #1
Has a complete stranger offered to help you, and did this stranger change your life?
Have you ever lost HOPE?
Have you ever lost LOVE?
Have you ever been ALONE.
Have you just felt NUMB!
When you are working just to get ahead of bills and you get home and your partner is sitting on the living room couch, just as you left him from two shifts ago!
I got home after working 7 straight days and two straight 8-hour shifts at the hospital after being sent from floor to floor. The tip of my finest hair under my neck was so aching!
Then he asked.
“Hey, Babe! You know, you should pay me to babysit YOUR kids!”
So I packed the three kids (2, 6, and 9 years old) up with heavy blankets and bundled them up.
This was in the middle of January in New Jersey in 1995. Packed for a week.
I walked up to him and said I was leaving him and that I was taking MY kids with me.
He said, GREAT!
So here I was, all three kids bundled up in this ’67 Thunderbird’ clunker. It was freakin’ cold! I did it! No plan! No thinking! I just did it!
I drove to the nearest ATM and took the only $1000 I had on my name. Gased up the old bird. My kids thought they were having the best joy ride of their lives.
And the plan was...
- Drive as far as a full tank of gas takes you!
- Stay at the cheapest hotel when you reach an empty tank of gas. We ended up at the Motel 6 in Niantic Connecticut.
- Stay there for two (2) weeks, $36/night, 14 days, ok is $504.
- Find a job. Mail resumes today so the Motel 6 phone number is on the resume. (Yup! Crazy stupid!)
- At the end of two (2) weeks, no company wants to hire you, you had a Motel 6 address on your resume.
- Gas up the car, go home to your pitiful life and just shut up.
Pic…my kids back in January 1995.
Your small, slim IPhone will not take document imports! So I needed to:
- Wait till Sunday, buy a Sunday paper to look for “Wanted” ads!
- Ask the hotel front desk cashier to print 50 copies of your wonderful resume, charging $.25 cents per page to your room.
- Fold your resumes with cover letters neatly in a mailing envelope, add the stamps, and have the hotel front desk mail it for you.
A week went by after I mailed fifty (50) resumes and applications.
Two weeks went by…no call, no messages.
I started to just cry after the kids fell asleep. I was not able to work the last two weeks, so I knew I would be behind with bills when I got back home.
But, as I started to add up the expenses and counted what was left in my wallet and the change, I confirmed it was the right thing to do.
“Live today, to fight another day!”
C’mon, no one was calling you at a Motel 6! Duhr! That was the biggest mistake!
Ok, I was 27, just graduated from Nursing, and was working as a graduate nurse no license issued. No one advised me, and no one could help me.
So I started to pack and took a quick shower, it was 1145pm, I thought I should perhaps go and pay the Motel 6 front desk cashier, yup, let me do that now, so I can drive back early to try and make a 2nd shift, (3–1130pm shift) at the hospital.
As I came down the motel stairs and saw that there was still a cashier and no one else, I decided to just check out.
This happiest smile faced me as she turned around with the most wonderful Jamaican accent, and asked me, “Sweety, where are your babies? Are they asleep?”
I said, “Yes.” As I try to use the back of my hands to clear my tears.
She asked if everything was alright.
With tears in my eyes, I informed her about my stupid plan and she said, “Oh my sweetie, it’s a good thing you caught me, this is my last night working here, my last shift, I was leaving in 10 minutes!”
She did not give this a second thought, then turned and said.
“Go bundle up your kiddos, my car is a beat-up red car behind the hotel, follow me with your car, and you can think about your plans when you are warm at my place. Let’s go and have a second chance at Life!”
I did as she told me, followed a complete stranger to her home. And as we pulled up to her driveway, as we each took the sleepy children up the stairs, I looked up at her window and noticed this.
THIS WAS THE MIRACLE.
I NEEDED HER AS MUCH AS SHE NEEDED ME AND WE WERE PUT IN EACH OTHER’S PATHS TO HELP EACH OTHER!
This stranger is going to be evicted in 5 weeks, she was needing to work two jobs just to afford this apartment, so she asked if I could help her with the rent and she would babysit my children and take them to school every day.
So, do you now believe in everyday miracles?
In the next 4 weeks, I was able to work for the largest healthcare company, and a stranger, Ms. Peich, was now part of my family and changed my life around.
After two (2) years of working full time, I took Ms. Peich around the neighborhood and asked her to come to look at some houses with me, houses we often talked about that we were dreaming of.
Then we walked up a porch.
I found a key under the rug to unlock the front door. And we entered.
The kids were overjoyed with how huge the space was however, in the corner of my eyes I could see Ms. Piech’s reaction and she was mesmerized.
However, I caught sadness in her eyes after she looked around.
I asked her why she felt sad. She asked me if the kids and I were leaving her.
Oh no Ms. Piech, as I hugged her.
Family takes care of family!
As I handed her the keys to the house and said.
“Ms. Piech. This is your house, it will be up to you how long we stay with you!”
Ms. Piech fell to the floor, her knees buckled as I hugged her on the bare wooden living room floor.
“Wait, and these are the car keys! As I handed them to Ms. Piech. This car is yours too!”
I cupped her face as her tears were starting to flow. As my tears started to flow and said.
“We both were lucky and blessed enough to have experienced a Miracle. You and I will never be the same. We will live our lives knowing we both experienced something so special together and know there will always be everyday miracles in this universe that will save us if we choose to accept them.”
I continued to say, “You will always be our first Miracle, Ms. Piech. My life will never be the same.”
“Let us continue to save lives! Continue to BE the Miracle! Even with NOTHING, we can still make miracles happen!”
I left that same day two (2) years later back to my life in New Jersey, along with my divorce papers, then moved away.
It’s been 25 years since I last saw Ms. Piech. I tried looking for her.
Maybe we were only meant to meet for the path we were destined for?
I now have three homes, and I have never ever been homeless since.
Start with Love today.
Make Miracles happen.
Have you ever experienced a miracle?
Yes! You certainly did TODAY!
Share your Everyday Miracle, stories. I’d love to experience them with you.