A Real Random Act of Kindness

If you've visit here on a regular basis you may remember a while back that I won a blog giveaway from Polka Dot Pineapple in Hawaii. You can click here to see the original post.

Anyway, I thought that I would like to thank Lettie by sending her a few things - some that were made by me and some things from New Jersey.

I knew I would include a beaded mirror like you can find here and a paperweight seen in this post, and I was trying to think of things that were specific to New Jersey (she sent me some delicious macadamia nut candy from Hawaii!!) One thing came to mind when we were on our Great NJ Lighthouse Challenge (check archives for posts) - when we were in Cape May we always made a stop at Sunset Beach which is famous for it's Cape May diamonds. There is a little gift shop there and I was able to pick up a couple of raw ones to include in my package.

Then, while brainstorming with some co-workers, I remembered that there was a glass artist - Peggy Karr - that had a factory not too far from where I live. I looked at the site online and was immediately drawn to the goldfinch ornament that you see in the picture above. You see, I believe that one of the first posts that Lettie had commented on on this blog was one of my bluebird posts and she had said that she didn't realize that we had such colorful birds in New Jersey. Coming from Hawaii, where I can only imagine is a daily paradise, I could understand how someone would think that. I thought the goldfinch ornament would be perfect, not only because it was made in NJ but because it is also our state bird.

The goal now was to find one. This involved searches online and finally led me to print out a list of the stores within driving distance that carried Peggy Karr glass. The first three that I called were dead ends. The fourth call was made to International Pottery in Morristown - a place that I had never been to or even heard of before. When I called there I spoke with Janet who assured me that even if they did not have the item I wanted in stock, which they didn't, that she was almost positive that they could get it for me. She did ask me why I was looking for that particular item and I explained to her the best I could about the blog giveaway and the need for the state item, etc. She told me she would check her stock and call back.

I really thought that this too would be a dead end, however, 15 minutes later she called me back to tell me that she had been in touch with the factory outlet in Randolph and they had one finch ornament left. She then asked if I would like to pick it up at her store or the outlet. I explained that I didn't want her to lose credit for a sale, but I knew the area of the factory and would be glad to pick it up there to have her avoid making the trip. She said that was fine and told me to ask for Mary when I went there the next day.

The next morning HWNSNBP and I drove up to the outlet and he waited in the car while I ran into their outlet store. I asked for Mary and was told that she wasn't there and immediately was crushed. But, as luck would have it, I had printed out the picture of the ornament and had written the directions to the store on that paper which I had in my hand and the lady that helped me saw it and said "You must be here for the finch." When I said yes she went over to the cash register and got out an envelope with the finch ornament in it and came back to me and said "I was told to tell you Merry Christmas."

I was speechless. She was handing me the finch and not expecting anything in return for it. She only asked what the significance was and when I explained she said "that will be perfect." I can't begin to tell you the feeling that came over me during this experience. I was overwhelmed. I did shop a little in the store before I left and got a couple of Christmas gifts while I was there, but I was truly touched by this gesture. This random act of kindness.

My package to Lettie arrived in Hawaii over the holidays and I know that she is enjoying the contents and will be posting about it in the future. Having been the beneficiary of both the wonderful giveaway and the RAK, I hope to be able to pay it forward in many small ways this year.