02/06/2026
Meaningful Encounter #3
On the heels of family acquiring desired collections, two huge yard sales, an estate sale, eight carloads and two cargo van loads hauled to the donation center, multiple boxes of Mom’s valuables remained under my guardianship. Not monetarily valuable, nostalgically valuable.
I decided to list these little treasures for sale one by one online with the hope of connecting treasure with hunter.
One such treasure was a bottle of once-popular bath oil likely from back in the 80s or 90s. Mom wasn’t into bath oil. I’m sure it was a gift she graciously accepted but never used—and far be it from her to get rid of a gift.
I listed this small bottle for sale for less than the cost of fries & a small coke. Rather quickly I received an inquiry about its availability. After responding in the affirmative and coordinating with the buyer a pickup time, I went about my day with no guarantee she would actually show up.
The agreed upon time arrived when I received a message stating that she had reached the destination—my home. The problem though, I was standing in my driveway with no buyer in sight. Strangely, her GPS had routed her to the wrong location. We left messaging and spoke on the phone to get to the bottom of things more quickly. When I explained that she was not at the right place, she said, “Oh no! I’ve driven over an hour to pick this up!” I was shocked! Over an hour? For $7 preowned bath oil?
Well, we figured out where this determined buyer was, and I guided her to my driveway. She exited her car, not with frustration, with exuberance. She excitedly explained how happy she was to have found the listing because it reminded her of her beloved mother who had once enjoyed this very bath oil but had passed on sometime ago. Driving over an hour one way to purchase a fragrance—one she herself does not use—was nothing to her in exchange for something that would intensify and crystallize cherished memories of her greatly-missed mother.
The dear soul had tears of joy in her eyes as I listened to a precious piece of her story and shared with her where this little treasure came from, and how touched I was that something of my mama’s could be such a sweet blessing to her.
As the saying goes, it’s the little things.
