better than i found

I'd started this special day "playing Santa" with Christina, as she had a week or so ago.

She'd gone to pick up the toys and clothes over by Savannah Arts Academy, then swung by for my company on the way to their haven.

(Hey, that's a little inside joke for me and her.)

I then suggested we go over to Greenwich and 'visit with family' and, to my delight, she'd agreed.

Very nice!

 

We'd tidied up at the Barry plot, doing the usual: setting the flowers into the jars, picking up random bits of jetsam.

Then we'd walked over to Jean Marie's, only to find her sign half-broken and all chipped, with the rocks I'd left centered all strewn about or buried.

When we left, my goal was to return with duct tape and try to secure the marker to both wires.

That didn't happen today.

I'd pointed out to her, on our way to the cemetery, the Marathon gas station where Smitty said her dad hung out. 

We didn't see him on the way there, but she spotted him as we drove back along Skidaway, sitting in the sun.

She hasn't seen him since August of 2018, when she and I and he had dined together for lunch.

I had not seen him since the dinner at the Diner two months after that.

We visited him for about twenty minutes or so.
Then she took me home and headed out to pick up her daughters from daycare.

I took care of the November sales tax for brother Smitty's business.

Then I updated the bookbag for Ronnie that I'd carried in my car since summer, hoping to spot him.

The package of socks and bag of Tootsie rolls were items I knew he would like. 

Given the shift in weather, I added mittens, a knitted hat, and a scarf.

I'm hoping he'll use the bag of toiletries and the mask.

As the time was already after past 5 PM, I knew the cemetery would be closed, but I went ahead to deliver the bookbag.

Miracle of miracles, I actually found my middle brother for the second time today.

i thank You, God.