Tomorrow would have been my puppy’s first birthday. A few nights ago I really struggled to come to terms with this. She’s gone and all of my “woulda, coulda, shoulda’s” don’t change reality as it is now. While I know she’s not in excruciating pain, it’s been really hard to adjust to her absence. After meeting with one of my doctors, I really wanted to do something special each December 18th to commemorate her presence in my life, even if through a small gesture.
The other night, my boyfriend and I were out at the mall and stumbled upon a photo booth inside of an Urban Outfitters. Needless to say I insisted on taking some “candids,” only to have the money viciously gulp up our dollar bills…and not count them! While I called the “help” number for assistance, he searched the story for a sales associate who might know what to do when this happens. The girl expressed honest concern when we said it didn’t count one of our dollars, so she quickly told us she’d speak with a manager, and then reappeared with a dollar bill.
At first I was like “Yes, this happens all the time,” but then she told us not to tell her boss because they don’t usually help with this. Then I realized she had gone in the back and taken a dollar out of her own wallet. I was really taken aback by this gesture of kindness, and I didn’t have any smaller bills on me, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked for any help with the machine. I asked her how I could pay her back, and she told me to pay it forward to someone else.
By the time we got back to the machine after this exchange, our $4 credit had disappeared, so the $1 didn’t make a difference…so we just paid for another round with a card. Afterwards, I found a $10 bill and we searched the store for the girl. When we found her, I gave her the money and told her to keep it in case others had issues with the machine and thanked her for her unexpected act of kindness. She insisted she couldn’t take it, so I said she could donate it or do whatever she wanted to. After we shared “Happy Holidays,” I left the store really feeling like we’d done something good.
Later that night I saw a post from an account I follow on Instagram, about how these women had teamed up with a shelter in their area, and instead of gifting each other presents, they were going to buy presents for this family and donate them. Sounds like a pretty awesome idea if you ask me!
My greatest fear is losing what memories I have of my sweet puppy…but I hope by doing something little for her each year, or when the moment presents itself like this, I can do good by her.
Until Soon,
kissed.with.a.quip.
