Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Putting in your thumb and pulling out a plum

About 10 years ago my mom was feeling pretty lonely.  My dad has passed away about a year before and living alone for the first time in decades was beginning to be painful.  One Saturday she received a phone call.

The phone conversation went like this:

Caller:  We're calling from the United Kingdom, would you talk to us?

My Mom:  Who is this?

Caller:  I got a free call to the United States and my 10 year old son and I picked the numbers for your phone out of a hat.  We had your area code and picked the rest because we wanted to call the Seattle area.

My Mom:  Sure, I'll talk to you.

______________________________________________

The phone conversation goes for a little while longer and a few minutes later I pull up into my mom's driveway.  My mom kept them on the line and asked if I wanted to talk to them.  I thought it was a scam...until we talked.

The lady was a recently divorced woman raising two kids.  The younger boy was interested in the United States and Seattle in particular (music, software, etc.) so with only an area code to go with they assembled the rest of the phone number picking the numbers out of a hat...and got my mom.

Ten years later this wonderful family is still friends with us.  We've exchanged photos, stories, heartaches and celebrations.  We've exchanged wedding gifts, baby shower gifts and have spent many hours talking on the phone.

This is just one of those great feel good stories and even seems a little unbelievable...even as I type it.  I wish I had more of these to share.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool story. I find myself wanting to meet them too.

Anonymous said...

wow, what a great story! how come i've never heard about this before! :) would love to hear more some time.

Anonymous said...

Then why did you hang up on me when I called and said I was the King of Nigeria and needed your help to move millions of dollars to the United States?

Esther said...

That's a wonderful story. I totally would have hung up on them in the first 30 seconds. It's funny how things work out sometimes. Thanks for sharing that story.