4 women

In followup to my post yesterday in regards to inebriated girl, I have been struck thinking about strangers banding together.

For years I have been sporadically walking with my friend in the mornings.  If you have read about my distress towards exercise, you will understand the sporadic description.  We have been getting better of late but we will do really well, be very consistent in our walking, then go for a month without doing it and then usually take off during the hot summer mornings.

But also for years we have been passing a jogger going the other direction.  I will call her PL for pink lady...She must wear pink a lot as that is how I think of her.  One time we didn't see her for awhile.  We never really say more than hi since she is running.  Then we saw her again and she stopped to chat.  Said she had been in a horrible accident and was just now recovered enough to run again.

Admittedly, we both felt kind of horrible for not really noticing we hadn't seen her in 6 months.  We had passed her yesterday and she didn't say anything.  Then we had our experience with inebriated girl and the other jogger.

Today PL came by and stopped us and asked us about the inebriated girl.  She said she felt horrible the whole rest of the day for continuing on but she didn't have a cell phone, ID, cash or anything on her to assist.  PL hadn't warned us about her yesterday but today asked if we had seen the girl.  We said yes, that we had gotten her connected with the local police.  PL was so relieved to know that but told us the girl's cell phone and shoes were still there in the bushes.  She said she felt she shouldn't move them.

We hadn't seen them yesterday, didn't even think to look around too hard.  Duh!  Dang! So today we grabbed them and after dropping my son at school today I drove them to the police department and turned them in.  The lady at the desk said they would make every effort to find her and they knew the hotel where she said she was staying.  I had charged the phone enough at my house to see there was a passcode so I couldn't get any information about it's owner,  but didn't really want someone to do "find my iphone" and end up at my house looking for it.... so I thought it best to turn it in.  (Note to all:  Put those text messages on your phone that say whom to call or email if your phone is lost.  They will show up without a user having to type in a passcode if someone turns it on.)

What struck me is how this event has bonded 4 women who get out at the same time in the morning.  Now there will just that "something more" in the way of a connection when we pass each other.

Not unlike this sober universe.  While strangers, we have all bonded over a common issue.  We check in on each other's lives, tune into each others challenges, offer support and advice where we can and really worry when someone drops off the radar.  (RFW if you are reading this, I would love an email. I worry about you!)

It's a great tribe to belong to even if we are a bit ashamed of what brought us here!!!  Hugs to all and have a great day!

HD