Madison

With one last week remaining in lab, and 3 weeks remaining in the United States, I'm sitting on the floor of my beloved apartment, staring blankly. I'm watching the Lake in slivers between buildings across from me while the sky is making up its mind about whether it's going to rain or shine. It's sort of how I've felt these past few weeks. Do I smile or cry? Leaving behind the city and country where I made my first independent home, became financially self-reliant, poured my heart into my work, and most of all, built the most wonderful relationships... it's an emotionally wrenching time and there's much I could say about these past 6 years. For now, I'll share just one little story from last night.

Selling my furniture has been an important part of this transition. Every piece that leaves my apartment brings the feelings of progress and emptiness together, but helps me accept the truth. It's also an infuriating process because while working full time, it's overwhelming to keep track of who is going to take what and when (needless to say I have a huge spread-sheet to help me). The worst part of this process are no-shows - people who are so excited about something you are selling, they fix a day and time, you turn down other people interested in the item and then the person disappears and stops responding. One such person was to pick up a mattress last week and then was nowhere to be found. What excuse could there be for such behaviour, I thought?! But I decided to try my luck again and wrote to her two days ago. She responded! And promised to come the following night. I was very suspicious but gave her a chance. Come 7:30PM, she was still absent and did not respond to messages. I came very close to telling her that I was no longer interested in selling to her. But I waited. And then a few hours later she was at my door.

She turned out to be a single mom, working crazy hours, who had driven a really long distance to get to me because my mattress perfectly fit a pull-out bed for her daughter - Madison.

Madison was the most adorable three year old with chubby cheeks, and a shy smile. She let out a soft "hi" when she saw me and waved her tiny hand up at me. When we rode the rickety elevator in my building, her little hand reached out to hold mine and while her mom was trying to stuff the mattress into the car, I turned around to find Madison twirling in little circles on the grass in a self-choreographed dance. I'm glad I kept some faith in her mom, because I unwittingly provided this little cutie pie a comfy bed.

As I finish this post, the sky has decided to pour down rain. But I'm still thinking of Madison and smiling :)