Two Vingettes Day

 Today I'll share two quick stories. The first a chance encounter. The second an emergency encounter.

While running errands yesterday I bumped into Dawn, a mom with three kids who I've known since Ashley was in grade school. Her daughter is four years older, her middle child a year younger, and the youngest is four or five years younger than Ashley. This story is about her youngest who attended the school where I work for a few months when I started. It was actually this connection that made me feel God's hand in landing the job. 

Let me back up to 2019. I learned about the opening from a friend of a friend (who has since become a friend). Her friend said the school where she was retiring from had a need for a Development Director. Annie knew a little bit about my background and thought I would be ideal for the position. I applied. After a few months of back and forth, I started the job.

When I announced my career move people suddenly told me about their connection to the school. Someone from my high school homeroom's daughter attended the school. A woman from my book club worked at the school. My neighbor's son graduated from the school. My postal clerk's daughter almost went to the school. And, Dawn's son was about to attend Bridge.

Quickly the match was not right for Dawn's son and he moved on to an even smaller school that worked with him and all of his needs. The school was so small he was the only one in his grade for the four years he attended it. When it came time to graduate from 8th grade his mother asked them to hold a graduation ceremony. You see his older siblings graduated from the same school at Ashley. After up to 11 years together (including pre-school) the small class of 25 or so students scurry to a variety of different schools and never see each other again. 

Graduation is a big deal.

The tiny school accommodated this request and incorporated his graduation into their high school graduation ceremony. 

We continued to chat. I was pleased to hear he is thriving both academically and socially at the local high school.

The emergency encounter started before the chance encounter and continued after it until this morning.

Don texted me in a panic. The downstairs toilet was leaking into the basement. 

Uh-oh.

I quickly texted Ray Jolly, our favorite local plumber, and left to run more errands. 

That is when I had the chance encounter.

Ray texted back within half an hour and came over at 3:30 to look at the problem. Thank goodness he was in the neighborhood and the job he thought would take eight hours only took five. He spent an hour replacing the wax ring (which I identified as the problem -- pat on my back). 

Before leaving he decided to flush the toilet a couple of times to make sure it was holding. 

Thank goodness he did!

He realized the issue was in the main drain. By this point it is 4:29 pm.  His drain cleaning machine was broken. He suggested calling another local plumber. They had already switched to night mode. Ray offered to rent a machine and come back in the morning to fix it. At first he said between 9:30 and 10. Then thought closer to 11.

This mean no using drains for the night -- no washing hands, flushing toilets, taking a shower to wash off the sticky day, etc. Ashley made plans to stay at a friends' house.

At 9:30 I went out the front door to take a walk to the park to use their bathroom. Fortunately we live within a third of a mile from a public restroom. He was outside and finishing up. I have rarely been so happy to see someone.

Not only did he fix the problem, he came back when he said he would, and really saved our sanity.

We have a couple of "small world" stories with Ray. Ray lives across the street from the house we lived in when we were first married. Ray bought a large fixer upper we looked at when Ashley was in high school. He is always pleasant, efficient, and never overcharges. I wish we could find a local electrician as perfect.

I happily took a shower as soon as he left our house.