Needle in a Haystack

I volunteered to work a 2-hour shift as a cashier at my church's rummage sale a few weeks ago. It was the last day of the sale and the building was still brimming with rummage and not quite enough happy shoppers.

We always work in teams, and since it was so quiet, the woman that I was assigned to work with gave me a reprieve from my duties so that I could go shop the sale. Great! I could walk the corridors talking to people and nosing about for treasures.

I honestly didn't see much that I wanted, but when I walked into the area called "Jewelry" I noticed this pin. I have always loved monograms and I was sure that I could see an "R" (Reeves) and a "D" (Dan, my husband). For me, a married monogram (like you would put on sheets or pillowcases) would be ARD.

I asked the ladies in the department for a consultation. "Could this be an A?" "Don't you see an A?" We laughed that I was wiggling the pin a little to skew the results. "Sure, it's an A," they finally conceded. Wonderful! I bought the pin for a whopping 50 cents, pinned it on my sweater and headed back to my station to work.

When I approached my teammate, Barb, she actually gasped. "That's my pin! You bought my pin!" In an entire building full of room after room of mismatched, well worn rummage, I had found "the needle in a haystack" and bought something my partner had donated! It had belonged to her Mother-in-Law (a woman that had lived to be 101 years old!) and it was a gift that she had monogrammed for her. Her name was Agnes (It is an A!) and Barb donated it to the church not really knowing if anyone would want a monogrammed item.

Can you believe it? The whole experience felt magical, like I was meant to have this pin; as if her Mother-in-Law meant for me to find it. Love it!