My Bed, Bath and Beyond Experience

My little shopping helpers.

Despite my great dislike for shopping, I may continue doing it if I have these kinds of experiences. Today, I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  But let me give you a recap of the mood I was in while at this store and the reasons for the mood.

We started this morning quite early.  I had scheduled family pictures at 6:30 am.  Crazy!  However, if anyone understands show week (Marcus and Parker are both involved) you would understand that was the only time I had this week to get it done. And, in my mind it HAD to be this week.  Don't ask why.  After family pictures, we went straight to a soccer game for Madilyn.  From there we did have a little down time at home before we headed out to our niece's (Emma's) baptism.  I had to run from the baptism to drop Parker at the show in time, and then run back to the baptism to grab Madilyn who wanted to stay until the end.  I had a couple of hours between the baptism and a bridal shower in the evening.  I decided I would grab a gift for the bridal shower in these couple of hours. I was going to Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I wasn't even sure if the bride was registered there, but I had received a $5 gift certificate in them mail, so they were getting a gift there regardless.

As I entered the store I did so with a two year old who had only 30 min. of a nap because of all of the aforementioned running around.  This two year old was not easy to shop with.  He tore down a display as I was waiting to get the registry printed.  This is after waiting to hear back from a family member on where they were registered.  Glass measuring cups were almost broken.  Anything he could possibly lean over the side of the cart and grab, he did.  This was not a good experience.  I was very worn out by this point. After receiving the bridal registry, I grabbed one of the first things on the list and headed for the checkout.  I knew BB&B did gift wrapping (another reason this was the store of choice for the day).  I asked, "You have gift wrapping, right?"  The answer, "We only have self-gift wrapping now."  I said in exasperation, "You've got to be kidding me!"  I don't know why I answered that way because I loved gift wrapping.  I think it was because of the two-year old who really was done shopping--and so was I.  The poor girl helping me was the one who had helped me clean up the display Brady had torn down, so she had pity on me and called her manager to help me with the gift wrap.

The manager was nice and was trying to chat with my kids while she wrapped. I thanked her for wrapping and explained I didn't NEEd her to, but appreciated it because of my lack of patience at the time.  She was talking to my kids asking how many brothers Madilyn had.  This lady explained she had three boys!  I explained I did too, but I also had Madilyn.  I asked the ages of her kids and she told me two were 35 and 1 was 23.  She didn't ask me about mine, but I decided to share.  Selfishly, I always like to talk about Ethan, but I usually wait for people to ask more about my kids. This time, I just felt like I wanted to tell her.  I told her I had a 12 yr. old, a 10 yr. old (who passed away), Madilyn (8) and Brady (2).  She paused and said, "My 23 year old just passed away 11 weeks ago."  After getting the chills, my immediate response was, "Why are you at work?"  I was tearing up and so was she.  She explained she didn't know what else to do.  She didn't think she was going to come back to work, but needed some "normalcy" in her life.  I found out a few things in the next 30 minutes. Yes, we talked for 30 minutes.  My kids, amazingly, behaved!  She drives an hour to work each day.  She needs people to talk to (who doesn't?).  She and I studied the same thing in college.  We share the same name, Kimberly Anne (although I am not sure she spells Anne the correct way?).  We both know a mother's grief.

During this half an hour, I was able to share my testimony about how we would see our sons again someday and how exciting it will be!  I was able to share about the Comforter and how much comfort I felt during such a difficult time.  She asked many questions about what it is like 2 years later in comparison to 11 weeks.  The pain is terrible and we both wonder "why our boy?"  Yet, we both know there is a plan.  The plan was for these boys to be on this earth just a short amount of time.  It is so amazing to share beliefs with each other (of totally different religions) and realize so much is the same.

After finishing our conversation that neither one of us really wanted to end, she bought some candy for my children.  They each got to pick their own box. She thanked my kiddos for being good and told them she wanted their mom to come back again. You can see the remnants of the candy on their faces in the above picture.  I am such a good mom, I didn't even wash their faces before snapping a quick pick for this post.  I wanted the full effect of the gift (which Kim lovingly wrapped for me) and the candy.

I plan on visiting Kim again at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Grief is hard, and sometimes it helps a little to have someone even understand and ounce of what you may be going through.  Kim mentioned several times she knew we were supposed to have met today.  I think she is right.