Lost and found

You know how they say sometimes you have to lose something to realize how important it is to you? Don’t worry – I’m not going to write about breaking up with my husband or anything serious like that – but I did have a mild panic attack when over the weekend I lost the bracelet my husband gave me when I had my first child.

This is how it went down: I took the older two kids to the Container Store on Sunday not realizing they didn’t open until 11 AM. We had an hour to kill so we shopped around Dick’s – totally the best place to kill 30 minutes with kids – and sat around the fountain at SouthPark lamenting about the flood. I knew at some point my bracelet had gotten caught on my shorts’ pocket but was too concerned about whether my shorts had ripped to feel it slip off. I didn’t even realize it was gone until late afternoon while I was Pure Barre-ing it.

Total panic set in. I mean – I wore that bracelet almost every day for 8 years. It’s as much a part of me as my wedding ring is. The minute I realized it was gone I started to think about everything it represented to me: the rites of passage of a new mother, the birth of my only daughter, the only piece of jewelry I have with her birthstone. I have always planned to give her the bracelet when she got married – now what would I give her that had as much meaning?

I never thought I’d find it. I mean, it had been a good 6 hours since I was at the mall. I called Container Store. No luck. I called SouthPark security. No answer – way too busy mopping up to help me. I reluctantly called Dick’s knowing it was a complete long shot.

Guess what? They had it. “Ken” at Dick’s was my savior that night. I was gushing on the phone about how happy I was – good ol’ Ken didn’t really understand but that’s OK. And I never got the story of who found it and turned it in. I sped right back over to Dick’s and reclaimed one of my most sentimental pieces of jewelry. I’m whole again.

Thank you, Dick’s. Thank you, Ken. And thank you to whoever found my sweet bracelet and didn’t decide to sell it on eBay!! There are honest people in this world.