Life’s little coincidences are funny, in a rather odd way.
Yesterday, racing around Covington doing my errands – there always seems to be too many – I was in Walmart and saw two different people I thought I knew. I said “Hello,” and kept moving quickly through the aisles. (Why is it at Walmart that, even if you only need three things, they’re always at opposite ends of the store, so you must traipse through the entire place? I think they plan it that way: Impulse purchases, don’t you know.)
Anyway, after I passed and said hello to the people, in different parts of the store, I realized, Hey – aren’t they dead? I blame the masks some still wear. I have trouble identifying people wearing masks. But, I’m glad they’re wearing them. Can you believe we still must do that?
We’ve all been through so much, I refuse to take the “Monkey pox” seriously. From what little I do know about it, we’d all have to be in full haz-mat suits to avoid contracting it from an infected person. Please! Enough already!
There’s a lot to be nervous or scared about these days. When I went into Food Lion, I couldn’t help flashing on that senseless, tragic shooting at the supermarket in Buffalo. Those folks were simply going about their daily chores of life. One was picking up a birthday cake for his three-year-old, for heaven’s sake.
Tuesday, almost 20 little children were mowed down inside their safe, formerly happy school. There’s just no sense in the world today. And, that’s not even touching the daily horror stories coming out of Ukraine.
All any of us can do is pray, and watch our backs, wherever we may be.
But, back to the oddball coincidence that happened yesterday. I was hustling through Food Lion, and spied a man, who from the back, I was certain was Horton Bierne. At first, I was thrilled: “There’s Horton!” my mind said. I started to shout hello, and then realized, dear Horton is no longer with us.
Oh, how I loved Horton. He was a good boss, and a great and thoughtful guy. One incident: Once, I wrote a column about how much I love Café Bustelo Cuban coffee, and how it is sometimes difficult to find. Horton managed to find some, and went to the trouble of mailing it to me. He always sent funny and/or cute cards. Each had a silly little “meme” he had drawn of himself. I miss him.
Throughout the rest of my errands, my mind kept coming back to Horton.
On my final stop – lunch! – I went into Family Treets. There weren’t many of us in there. No one I knew, which is rather unusual, actually.
Then, while I was tucking into my “world’s best fish sandwich,” a lady came up to my table. She reads my columns, she said, and likes them very much. (I love it when this happens. I love readers!)
She introduced herself. Her name is Brenda. “I was Horton’s sister-in-law,” she volunteered. We delved a bit into her family. I found out her sister is my friend Mary Ann Bierne. And then, Brenda told me some stories about her mother. It felt like “old home week.”
But how odd of a coincidence it was: I thought I glimpsed Horton. I kept thinking about him. And then, here comes his close relative, right up to my table to introduce herself. Weird. But wonderful.
Ah, life’s little coincidences. You’ve gotta love them! (Stay safe out there.)
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