I may be the world’s best at losing things. Kitchen ware. My cell phone. Earrings. You name it – I can lose it. When Larry lived, he was the best finder of lost things. Even when I didn’t know what the thing looked like, he could find it. Say it was a kitchen implement that had a specific shape. He’d look until he’d find it. So, losing stuff was not such a trouble for me. I’d just ask Larry for help.
After Larry’s passing, finding the lost became so much more difficult. I cannot get down on the floor to look under the bed. If I tried (and once I did try), I can’t get back up. Then, the Men-In-Blue come to my house and pick me up. A lift assist, I think they call it. And, of course, even though I ask them not to bring the fire truck, they do (that worries my neighbors). As I say, I only need to be picked up from the floor; the whole crew doesn’t need to come.
The last time I needed help, I was sitting in my desk chair, reached to the floor and slide down onto the floor. Daughter #3 came to the house, but could not get me up. So, I used the emergency button that I wear, and the fire fighters came. Daughter #3 let them into the house. Two of them picked me up from the floor. I thanked them and walked into the hall where three more men were standing – FIVE MEN ALTOGETHER!!!
My sister carefully explained to me that the truck and firefighters all had to come because if there was a REAL emergency, they would not have time to go back to the fire house for the crew. She went on to say, as she often did – “You need a keeper!” I heard that from her many, many times. After losing something. After not being able to find something that was hidden by Jenny (my live-in ghost). Yes, I’ve told you about Jenny before. She comes and goes. Has followed me from where I lived in a really small town as the school superintendent, to the university town where I was working on an advanced degree, up the canyon where I lived in a log cabin, and to my suburban home. More about her later.
I have two young friends, a daughter and son of a neighbor. Sometimes, when I’d lose things that I was sure had found a place under my bed, the son would come and find the lost item for me.
Lately, though, my best luck with finding lost things has been with Rita. Rita comes to my home on Wednesday mornings to help with chores like mowing the lawn in the summers and working inside during the cooler months.
Rita can find anything! Like Larry, she seems to have an uncanny knack for finding what is lost – whether or not she knows what it looks like. Sometimes, I can provide her with a possible location of the lost item. Sometimes, not.
My wallet often seems to get out of my purse choosing to reside in some local unknown to me. That means, of course, that I’ve lost the thing! Now, a wallet is an important thing to know where it is. In my wallet, it has the usual small amount of cash. More important are all of the cards and medical identifiers that have to be in that wallet, as well as the tiny bottle of nitroglycerin that is kept there in the event I think I’m having a heart attack. The nitro has been kept in the wallet for years – no apparent heart attack to this point.
I have cards for the stents and the new pacemaker. Cards for every COVID vaccine. Cards permitting me to drive, to have medical insurance, to make purchases, as well as gift cards that I have forgotten to use. Oh, yes, a wallet is a powerful thing.
The last time I lost my wallet, I called Rita who came from her house to mine to see if she could find it. And, find it, she did! It seemed to me that I might have looked there, but it is also possible that I just could not see that it was there.
I promised you a bit more about Jenny, my ghost. One time about a year ago, that same wallet was missing. It was on a Wednesday, so Rita was here, working in the house – maybe using the vacuum. We began to search for the all-important wallet. I thought perhaps I had left it at the last place I’d shopped or been for lunch. I really didn’t think so, but that’s always a possibility.
Rita and I scoured the house. We looked in boxes, in box lids, out of boxes, on tables, under couches, in the kitchen – everywhere, including the basement. I even called the last places I’d been to see if it was in their lost and found. It was not.
Thinking that Jenny may have hidden the wallet from our view, I talked aloud and sternly to her saying that if she had hidden the wallet, she needed to get it back, immediately. It was very important. And, if she refused – she would have to leave my house, never to return. By this time, I was really, really not a happy camper – thinking it had to be Jenny!
Rita left for the day. I stewed and stewed about where that wallet could be; I continued looking. The next morning, I walked into the room I use for an office and, there in a box lid – a box lid that both Rita and I had looked at many times the day before – was my wallet. I thanked Jenny for making it visible, again. I called Rita to let her know that the wallet was visible, and we could both relax.
When I talked with Rita about the wallet’s return, she said, “But, we both looked there several times.” I talked with my sister about the incident (she never really believed that a ghost lives with me), and her response was, of course, “You need a keeper!”
Well, I admit that I need a keeper, sometimes. And, I think I have one – her name is Rita!
Be Safe and Be Well.
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are appreciated.
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