michelle, emmer & emma

I sometimes marvel at the Lord's timing of everything.

I am glad that on some days, I am unexpectedly surprised by happy strangers that come along my way.

Some people, for whatever reason, aren't comfortable striking up a conversation with someone else. Having to come into close contact, within their circle of space, might make some people feel uncomfortable or simply not open to becoming acquainted with me. Again, there could be a multitude of reasons such as lack of time, having to be somewhere, ill, or feeling insecure. Shoot, I even feel these feelings sometimes, but mostly, i LOVE meeting new people and getting to know someone, remember George Dubbya?

These past two weeks, I've been fortunate to run across a few women who were strangers, but had a twinkle in their eye and kindly smiled at me as I was going to pass them by. For a reason, I drove backwards. I'd like to share my brief encounters with them.

The first woman I met is Michelle. I was at CVS with James, as he needed to fill some prescriptions. As you may know, I am a bargain shopper/couponer, so i had slowly passed by the haircare aisle when I saw yellow clearance stickers screaming for my attention on the shelves of select hair color. I drove into the end of the aisle and Michelle was there checking out the deals too. I saw her shopping cart to the right of her with her huge coupon binder open! I instantly got excited to meet another couponer, though she is more of an extreme, very organized couponer. 

We started talking about that and I shared with her a few couponing/deal sites I visit frequently, including Hip2save.com that she had never heard of. James came back to find me still there chatting away! I mentioned my blog and how i write about my life, including occasional shopping trips or special buys. She went on to say that she had a disability, not one that is visible to the eye. I didn't quite understand what she said about that because she spoke very low, but I do know that she has had lots of medical challenges. She is married with three sons, I believe, one who is autistic. She said she'd like to share my blog site with him to encourage him that even though you may have a disability that you can still be productive, creative and be someone you want to be. That there is still hope.

I then snapped a photo with her and wrote down my email and blog address. She took a pic of me to show her son. After 25 minutes of conversing with her, we had to go. I knew I could chat with her all afternoon if we had the time lol!

The next couple of women I met were Emmer and Emma, a mother-daughter duo I met in my doctor office building's lobby. They were definite women of God. Faith was the hot topic that brought us together.

dear emmer who led prayer

I was entering the lobby and Emmer had a sparkle in her eye that I saw through her over-sized sunglasses. I complimented her glasses, because I love big glasses too! She smiled and said thank you. I ended up easily conversing with her daughter emma too, who sat right across from her. They were waiting for their ride home, just like James and I were.

Emma went on to profess that I was healed. That I could be fully healed, that I just needed to keep my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, because He can heal! I smiled and agreed showing her my engraved silver ring, "Saved by grace through faith"- Ephesians 2:8-9

She asked if I minded if we prayed together and of course I didn't. She anointed my head with a blessed oil and murmured words of Hebrew. She anointed the hands of Emmer and James.

James and I held grandma Emmer's hand and my right hand held Emma's as she held her mom's hand too. Emmer lead the prayer. After the 'amen', Emmer looked up at James and asked, "are you her [my] husband?"
We chuckled.
"No, I am her friend." 
"Oh, Fred! nice to meet you Fred."
"No, Mom, that's her FRIEND, not Fred. His name is James."
"Oh, well then James, that prayer goes for you too."

Emma went on to tell me that she and her husband are ministers of a small church. We exchanged numbers and I wrote my blog url and email for her too. As their rushed taxi arrived, she said hurriedly out the door, maybe we can have lunch sometime!  

I hope she reads my blog soon because I promised I'd write about our encounter and that Emmer was gonna be on the internet lol.

Have you met any interesting strangers lately?

george washington

 I love meeting people. The motivation behind today's post comes from a suggestion my aunt june gave me years ago when I was riding the city bus daily to college & other places(before vent). While taking city transit, I met ALOT of interesting people and struck up conversations with them. Some became regulars and some I just encountered once. Aunt june said I should write about them, their stories and conversations we had. I never did. Today will mark the beginning of this fascinating journey as I document special, random [or are they?] meetings with strangers. 

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His gold i.d. bracelet was engraved G.W. He told me he was the original George Washington! lol. I really don't know his last name, only that it starts with 'w', but i do know his first name is george and he probably showed me so i could remember him.

I met George yesterday at the mall. He was sitting alone, observing everyone. James wanted to get some japanese food at the food court so i tagged along and visited neighboring Panda Expresses menu because i do enjoy their orange chicken about once a year. I met james at the japanese food place as they were preparing his dish. I then followed james to an unoccupied table right next to where george was sitting. He had friendly eyes. He looked at me and I said hi and complimented him on his newsboy hat. He smiled and said if I wanted one, he would give me one, which i found interesting because he didn't have any bags with him! lol. I said, oh it's ok, i dont look good in hats.

 James was chomping on his lunch so I sat there talking between them two. After a few q&a's back and forth I asked the old man due to an accent, "where are you from?" He replied, " Jerusalem." Wow i thought! I extended my hand and said, I am brittany, My name is brittany. What is your name? He said George and at first I thought he said Joe. He later showed me his engraved bracelet.

He asked me how old I was and if I was ok and that Jesus will help me. I agreed. He went on to tell me that he comes to the mall everyday and watches people. He likes it because there are different people everyday. After he goes home, he watches tv. He only drinks one cup of a coffee a day and that is at breakfast. Eating alot of (red) meat is not good for you he tells me, yet he encouraged me to eat another piece of chicken from James's plate. He still drives at 87 years old and knows what's going on. His 25 year old grandson has just become a lawyer. George will be traveling to Seattle next month with his son, who is the dad of the new lawyer. He seemed quite excited about that trip, wanting to get out of Az while the summer booms with heat. From what I can tell, G.W. is quite proud of his family; his children and grandchildren. Before living in arizona, he used to live in chicago. We are both capricorns, no wonder we clicked instantly! He was born in 1925! 

As it was time to say bye for now (as James and i were going to see the hunger games-i even invited george to come along with us but he declined. He likes his peace, which btw he had a silver peace band ring on his wedding finger). I let him know that next time i go to the mall that I am going to look for him. He let me know he would pray for me and i, for him. I really hope to find the cute old man named george again who's content living out his days alone but not alone.  he's gotta friend in me.

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p.s. check out my guest post at the the struggling cyster. While you're there, say hi & get to know Meghan, she's a sweet blogger friend of mine & has been SO supportive of me!