What a day! First my youngest granddaughter ran errands. We took my recycling garbage to the Dumpster. We got potting soil and eggs at Dollar General to avoid having to go to Walmart. Then we launched our regular shopping expedition at Five Below.
(I used to be able to give her $5.35 to shop for five items at Dollar Tree. She was happy and I looked like a hero, but those days are gone.)
She shopped for about 20 minutes, and I picked up a few things. Finally, I gave her 10 more minutes and set a timer on my phone. As we were checking out, the timer went off. Mission accomplished?
It was then she discovered her phone was missing. We looked around the store for the phone, which also has her diabetic monitor app on it. No dice. I alerted the young woman at the front and asked her to make an announcement for shoppers to keep an eye out for it.
Many people kindly joined in the search. I explained the situation to new customers, who also searched.
The young employee used my phone to try to make my granddaughter’s phone ring, but it was set to Do Not Disturb, and I do not have her phone on my finding app.
Her older sister looked at Life 360 to ensure that we had not left it at home. It was definitely at the store.
By now, most shoppers and store personnel had joined the hunt: Simpson County basketball players in town for a game, a man with three children, whole families, teenagers, people of all colors and ages.
We went out to the car in the incredible heat a second time to look again. Upon re-entering the store, sweaty and disheartened, a small crowd met us holding the phone aloft.
We all cheered! A toddler’s mother — a total stranger — had found it where my granddaughter had looked several times.
If I had had a hundred-dollar bill on me, I would have given it to that lady, whose name is Savannah. Mission accomplished?
To top it all off, I got 3,950 steps in the quest for the phone — the bulk of my daily goal! It is usually dicey for me to get enough steps on days I do not work at the food pantry because I lounge about at home. Mission accomplished?
You decide. All three were wins to me.
I am not much of a shopper, so her adherence to the time limit was a win.
Not just finding the phone was a victory, but the willingness of so many people to take time from their busy day to help was an affirmation of the goodness of folks in Mississippi.
As far as my steps go, I would have been doing the Electric Slide — or as my brother John says, the Fat Old Man Shuffle — for a bunch of songs this evening had I not wandered about in Five Below for an hour and a half.
Tom Cruise has nothing on me. Mission accomplished!
