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The Shoes that were meant to be

The village I live in has a Facebook community page for the locals, its a useful way for people to advertise their products to sell, people ask for recommendations regarding tradesmen or local products, or for people to offer things for free if they want to get rid of them. I can see from various things that are offered that its a nice village with people who have a nice community spirit and are friendly and helpful. So lovely!!

About three weeks ago a pair of shoes were on the page, in my size, that I really liked and thought would be useful to have, and amazingly they were for free. I had a think about it over a couple of days and then sent a message and asked if they were still available. the answer came back immediately that someone else had asked for them too, so no they weren’t, unless the other person didn’t want them. Ok, I thanked the woman, and regretted leaving it a couple of days before asking..they were obviously not meant for me.

Three weeks passed.. I was busy with lots of other things, and then earlier this week I had a message from the woman who owned the shoes saying they didn’t fit the other woman and did I till want them? Yes, I do, was the reply, and we arranged for me to go and collect them the following day from the womans house.

I knocked on the door and was greeted by a friendly and sociable woman, who had the shoes ready for me – did I want to try them on? No, I knew they’d fit I told her. We talked of the village, of the things that interest us, as women do, we had similar interests in cats, and artwork, the village, walking, and stood chatting for 30 minutes or so. As we parted she said to let her know if the shoes fitted..

I got hope a few minutes later and tried the shoes on, and as I expected they did! I took a photo and sent a picture to the woman, Sharon, via Facebook.. and she was delighted they did. Aww.. how kind…

The following day Sharon asked me to go around to her house again for a cup of tea and chat and I gladly accepted for the following day. I was pleased that I was seeing her the following day as I felt there was something I wanted to do….

When I turned up at her house the next day I had a gift for Sharon…. and when she opened it, she was delighted, as I hoped she would …. I knew she liked cats, as I do, It was a print of my “Burning bright” tiger painting and she immediately wanted a photo of the two of us with it, to put on Facebook later.

I happily spent the afternoon with her, talking about health, happiness, cats, the village, family, houses, all the usual things that women do when they first meet. I didn’t want to outstay my welcome, so after three hours said I’d go.

When I got home a few minutes later, she’d already put the photo on Facebook, and it had had some lovely comments.

I feel I’ve made a good friend already, as does she… which I think is lovely… and lovely to make one who lives in my village, too.

And as I joked with her the other day, who’d have thought a pair of shoes would have created such a lovely friendship!!