September 28, 2011

Nickels...

As I was finishing the lawn yesterday and blowing off the driveway, I heard a little tinkle over the blower and looked down to see a penny, it made me smile a little but I decided to pass it by and continue working.  Not 10 seconds later and about 5 feet away I then see a nickel on the ground.  Again I pass it by and continue working, only to shift my eyes again and see a dime on the ground less than 2 feet from the nickel.  At this I laugh right out loud and say "Ok, ok, you have my attention."  I bend down and start to pick up the coins, finding two more pennies in the process.

You are probably thinking, "What's the big deal about finding 18 cents in your driveway while mowing the lawn?"  To answer that question we have to go back more than 15 years.  When Jasey was 15 his grandfather in London passed away.  Not long after that odd little things started happening around the house to Jasey and his parents.  One of the most notorious was nickels showing up out of nowhere.  I don't mean there would be a random nickel on the counter, I mean a nickel falling to the floor out of a towel half way through you drying off with it.  Crazy right?

It was usually nickels but it would deviate to other coins at times.  So this went on for a few years and then Jasey's dad got sick and passed away.  Nickels started showing up more frequently and to other people, myself included.  The first few that showed up for me I mostly thought 'how sweet'.  It was before Jasey and I were married, heck it was before we had split up and got back together, so I thought it was just a happy coincidence (though Jasey does not believe in coincidence).  After we got back together they became a bit more frequent and oddly enough Jasey and I would both have a nickel story from within a few days of each other.

One time when Jasey was still at his old office, we did yard work on the weekends, so we were there working.  (We never wanted to be wasting our weekend doing this but that day was  particularly crappy and we had to force ourselves to go.)  I passed by the front door and there was a dime on the ground.  I smiled picked it up and kept working, a few minutes later I passed the same exact spot and there was another dime, I picked it up and kept going.  Now I'm doing things like sweeping and blowing off the sidewalks, I'm very thorough, the sidewalk was spotless and nobody had walked by.  I kid you not I walked past a few minutes later and there was another dime in the same spot.  I picked it up and went an told Jasey about it we both had a little 'huh?' moment and were quiet, then smiled and went back to work.  I walked past the spot a few more times but there was nothing else, then about 20 minutes later I was passing by and there was a dollar bill on the ground!  I picked it up but never saw anything there again, that day or ever.  But every time I passed that spot I thought about it.

So these sorts of things happened over the years, we never searched for random coins or nickels they would just always kind of appear.  We didn't expect them on big days like our wedding day or when the kids were born, but they would show up around those times, like an early wedding gift or a belated birthday card.  No matter when they show up they make you smile all the same.

This past year in May marked 13 years since JC passed away.  (A side note:  May 2008 was 10 years since he passed and on the exact date is the day that AJ started walking.  How cool is that?!)  So this year, on the day JC passed 13 year later, Jasey and myself both had multiple experiences with random nickels.  It was a particularly low point for the both of us.  We were fast approaching the one year mark of living with mom and being out of work.  Our money was running out and everything was just closing in fast.  We were both cranky and down and having trouble picking ourselves back up even though we needed to.  Enter the nickels.  That day, Jasey had one jump out of his wallet even though he doesn't carry around cash and had on pants that were just washed so there was nothing in the pockets.  He also had one jump out of his lap when he got out of the car, again where did it come from?  That same day I had one fall from a towel that I had taken out of the dryer and already begun to fold.  Another one fell from a roll of tape as I was walking across the kitchen, and I can tell you it was not attached to the sticky part of the tape when I picked it up.  Later that same day as I went to do more laundry there was a dime sitting on the ground in front of the dryer, it was not there earlier when i had picked up the nickel and I was the only one home.  We exchanged stories that night and talked about the possibilities.  For the next week or so I had 4 more random nickels show up.

It happened a couple more times over the next 2 months, each time just when Jasey and I were starting to feel frustrated and hopeless again we would each have a separate nickel story, usually on the same day.  Then, Jasey got a job!  The nickels haven't stopped but they aren't as frequent as they were becoming.

 We went to DC for Stacey and Don's wedding over Labor Day weekend.  We got there a couple days early and had a day to go be tourists in DC with the kids.  As we were heading to the Smithsonian, there on the ground was a heads up penny, we pointed it out to AJ and had him pick it up and put it in his pocket.  The rest of our time there, right up until we were walking through the airport to come home, AJ found 4 more pennies on the ground.  I made sure to save two of them and put them in each of the kids wallets.

I never met Jasey's grandfather but we were both Aquarius and he is AJ's namesake so even though I always assume that it is JC sending them and not Jasey's grandfather, I guess there isn't really anyway to tell.  It's been almost a joke over the years but every time one shows up Jasey and I tell each other and then wonder what it is JC, or Tony, is trying to tell us.  It could be 'Congratulations', 'I'm so proud', 'I love you' or 'Don't worry, it will all work out'.  Whatever it is, it's nice to know that someone is out there looking out for us, they love us unconditionally and they would do anything to let us know.  Even throw nickels at us.

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