Laughter from above

I think Paul laughed at me today. No, I’m certain he rolled on the floors of Heaven with extreme belly laughs. I think that he did some tisking under his breath and all. Why? Well, let me tell you a little story…

After a long weekend in the homeland, I stopped up at the cemetery to visit Paul before making the long drive home. I pulled through the gates, turned left, and parked. Just like I always do. Then I reached down to the passenger side floorboards for my winter boots to trek through the snow. I opened the door then bent over to put on my boots then grabbed my umbrella because it was raining.

Another look at the snow made me decide to leave the keys behind so that they didn’t drop in the deep snow forcing me to dig around for them. So I hit the unlock button so that I didn’t accidentally lock myself out then I set the keys on the passenger seat.

Then I stood up to exit the car, instinctively hit the lock button, and shut the door.

I stopped short of cursing as I looked through the window at the keys sitting there next to my $500 mobile phone and my handbag – that uncharacteristically had $500+ in cash as well as my camera in it.

I took a moment to berate myself and feel sorry for myself then I walked over to Paul’s grave and told him I’d be right back. Then I started walking toward town. (Thankfully, sometime after I left town in 2001 they built a gas station near the interchange, so it wouldn’t be too far of a walk.)

At this point, I was very happy to have my boots and umbrella!

On the short walk to the station, I worried not about my expensive phone and money sitting there in plain view (this is Cle Elum, after all) but about walking into the gas station to ask for help and not knowing the person behind the counter.

But on walking in I was greeted by Margie of all people! I had not even closed the door when she exclaimed: “Frances! How are you!?”

And I gave her my sob story. And she gave me a big hug. Then she called the locksmith.

As I waited for the locksmith (less than 10 minutes) I chatted with Margie and the mother of two old classmates. Then I got a ride back to the cemetery with John the locksmith. (It was George when I was in town. I wonder what happened to him…?)

Ten minutes later John had the car open and I was finally ready to visit with Paul. Who I think had just about finished laughing at me by that time.

I blame this all on Paul, of course. After all, it’s his fault I was at the cemetery in the first place.

10 Replies to “Laughter from above”

  1. … Tough to say whose fault it really was, phrany. After all, maybe it’s your Daddy and Mommy’s fault for your incident. their fault… Mybe it was King Henry VIII’s fault. 🙂

    1. It made me laugh a bit, too, remembering that after we got married, my Daddy handed Paul his spare copy of my CRX keys saying: Keep this somewhere safe for when she locks herself out of the car and has to call you.
      In my defence, Daddy only had to bring the CRX key to me twice. Once about 1 mile from his house; once about 30 miles away!!
      (Paul never had to bring me spare keys.)

  2. Running on auto is the pits (spoken by someone who runs on auto and regrets it mostly).
    Glad it worked out, and glad you gave the old man a chuckle 🙂

  3. That was a great story…sorry you had to walk back into town in the cold & wet though!
    I feel your pain too… I just did that for the 2nd time in less than 6 months!! Josh, instead of laughing at me(this time) lovingly handed me one of those magnetic key hider things 🙂

  4. When we lived in Wisconsin for a summer for jeff’s internship, we only had one car. So we would take Jeff to work and then run our errands and pick him up in the afternoon. One day I went about 30 minutes away to an awesomely cheap grocery store I had heard about (we had NO money). As I was getting out of the car with all the kids, I threw my keys on the seat while I grabbed everyone and then proceeded to lock the doors and head inside. It wasn’t until I was back outside with all 4 kids, 8 months pregnant, that I realized i had locked the keys in the car. And Jeff was half an hour away with no car to come help me, and i had zero money to pay a locksmith. SO I just hoped for some small town Wisconsin kindness on the part of the local police and an officer came and unlocked my car for me. It could have been the way I looked, sobbing, pregnant, with four small children in tow that kept him from lecturing me on the improper use of the local police. But either way, I was so grateful.
    And I will always remember the Amish horse and buggy tied up to the light pole outside of the Aldi supermarket and the distraction it gave my children while we waited for someone to help us. Good times.

    1. [At least] one of my sisters have locked the keys in the car whilst it was running–and whilst their infant child sat in a car seat inside. I can’t imagine that stress! (This is a ‘break the window’ situation rather than a wait for the cops or a locksmith situation.)

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