Missing Pieces

Running a lodge is sometimes filling in the gaps, cleaning up the details, getting done what needs to be done amid a large number of people having a vacation.  I frequently try to account for my time at the end of the day - I am not sure what I did, but I was busy.  After the 100th day without a day off, the glitter flakes away.


When I have had enough and I get up wondering why I am groundhogging another day, something touches my heart and helps me recall the reasons.  This was one of those times....







As I was having my morning tea, before I had a shower - at least I was properly dressed, a woman and her significant other, came into the game room.  Running through the mental catalog of current guests, I drew a blank.

"Can I help you?"  (translation - what are you doing here? (disturbing my tea time))
"Oh, Hi."  pause  "We stayed here a few years back.  There was a puzzle we put together.  The picture was of a boy and girl, there were a few pieces missing."
Oh, I hope we didn't pitch it.

"I have been looking for the picture everywhere.  I haven't been able to find it."

The significant other finished her explanation.  "Ten days after we were here, her father was killed in an accident."  "Outside the hospital room was this same picture.  We had never seen it before putting the puzzle together.  But there it was, hanging outside his room."

She continued, "I have been looking for picture ever since.  It was a comfort to me to see that memory of being together just a few days before..."

I began rummaging around the shelves where we keep games and puzzles.  They were a scrambled mess, precariously balanced on top of each other.  She reached below me and pulled it out.  It went to its new home.

That the lodge was part of some bigger picture, this memory was one of comfort at a time of loss - it touched my heart.