Things that Click in the Night

I came across a sewing machine I wanted to buy on a local online garage sale site.  I contacted the seller, we chatted a bit (online) but didn't agree on a price.

The owner came back later and asked for an offer... this would be machine #3. 

I had planned on buying another machine (#1) and had sold some stuff to get the money as I had spent the $ I got for Christmas to buy #1 on machine #2, which we brought back from Iowa with us.... but I still wanted machine #1.  I had contacted the owner of #1 several times since we returned home but hadn't heard anything so I kinda gave up and started looking again.   

Which is how I found this machine...  #3.

So I gave her the $ I had and told her about #2 but we still didn't meet on a price for #3..  we put that aside and started chatting about life and the stuff that happens to you while you are busy living. 

It was the middle of the night and it seems when you talk in the middle of the night, its just easier.  I had asked if the machine had attachments and a manual.  I was told that the attachments were there but no manual. 

However, she said there was a handwritten note in the machine about how to change the bobbin.   In her grandmother's handwriting.  The grandmother has passed in '92.  And that she thought of  her grandmother every day.   oh geez.....

Then she told me how her grandmother passed....  and how much she missed her... and that she was being checked for something related to her grandmother's passing.  

My heart was breaking....  I told her to talk to someone about how she was feeling...  to let the people who loved her hold her hand...  and that they were scared too.


And then there was me.....  I was buying her grandmother's sewing machine...  I kinda feel like a thief taking her grandmother's machine.  I felt like I was taking something so valuable and treasured away from this woman. 

The seller of machine #1 finally sent me an email and is still wanting to sell it.

We chatted a bit today.  I asked about the checkup and she thanked me for being so kind to her.  My heart hurts for her and I sent all the prayers I could muster.

I will pick up machine #3 tomorrow.  I need her to know that its going to a good home and that I will care for the machine for her grandmother....  and for her.

We just never know how our reaching out to a stranger can impact someone's life.

And if she will let me, I will name the machine after her grandmother.