THE WHITE TOWEL WITH THE PINK POLKA DOTS
Original Post Date - 9/15/17
It was pretty late Friday night before I finally got myself ready for bed. I organized the last few travel quotes on my desk before going into the weekend.
My husband Michael was home earlier than usual so we took advantage of the time of day and ran errands together in Keene, New Hampshire barely stopping to appreciate the fact that we had rare down time together. I probably would have not even reflected on this at all if it wasn’t for that white towel with the pink polka dots.
My mind was already making a to-do list of what needed to be done the next day. Random thoughts and mental checklists and ‘dang, I forgot to take something out of the freezer for tomorrow’. I really wasn’t paying any attention after washing my face. I reached down under the bathroom cabinet and pulled out a towel to dry my face.
That’s when it hit me. Standing there with water dripping off my face, a feeling evoked by a simple white towel with pink polka dots.
14 years ago, my youngest daughter Laurabeth and I were shopping at a Kmart in Bennington, Vermont. I saw a towel set that reminded me of my mother and I told Laurabeth a story about her. The design was very mid-century, something my mom would have had in her home. It was a warm smile and a lovely memory of my own mom. Laura must have snuck away because when the two of us got in the car to go home, she handed me a Kmart bag. I looked at her and she at me and she said ‘open it’. I remember that little smug half smile she had. Inside the bag was that white towel with the pink polka dots.
At that moment Friday night when I pulled that towel to my face and realized which towel it was, all previous mind racing thoughts I had immediately abandoned me. I was in the swells of a beautiful memory of a generous and unselfish act of a sweet 11 year old child. I smelled and embraced that towel to my chest close to my heart and smiled. My heart was full.
I laid in the bed awake for a long while after that just being in a state of happy.
I truly feel blessed with the career that I chose because it is what I do that enables others to have that exact experience I had Friday night.
Over the course of a 24 year career, I have assembled my client’s dreams and turned them into a reality. That reality then turns into an experience which then eventually turns into a lovely memory. It is in those memories that evoked moments like the white towel with the pink polka dots did for me.
Lisa Fitzgerald, Owner