This past weekend was the annual Creative Stitches show in Sherwood Park, AB. Both Jeanne and I and our office manager, Jo were there setting up and working the booth for the weekend.
We were staying at the hotel attached to the complex where the show was being held, and they offered a free breakfast, as many hotels do these days. The first day, Thursday Jo and I went down and had breakfast. It was the usual fare you'd find at one of these free hotel breakfast deals....bread for toast, some bagels and muffins. There was yogurt and cereal and oranges and apples, as well as eggs and bacon. Not gourmet by any means, but all we really needed! The perfect start to the day ahead of us unloading the van, and setting up the show.
The second morning, we were up early, three of us needing to get through the bathroom of the hotel room, getting all ready for the first day of the show! So by 8am we were down to the free breakfast room, and it was packed with people!! And....there was absolutely no food left!! None! It was kinda weird! I don't think the hotel was prepared for the amount of people they had staying there! People were walking in, and walking back out, not very happy! We decided we could grab a muffin or something later at the Second Cup coffee place that was right outside the area our booth was in.
Well, soon enough the show started, and it got so busy that we weren't able to leave the booth for that muffin. So early afternoon there was a slight break and I headed out to the Second Cup to grab muffins for us. OMG!!! The line up was really really long....and there was NO FOOD left!!! Apparently this facility also was not prepared for the a whole bunch of hungry women!! There was a place that sold fries and burgers, but the line up was even longer and I couldn't leave the booth that long!! (At this point imagine me wasting away to nothing....) I walked back to the booth, kinda cranky I might add!
I was breaking it to Jo that we wouldn't be eating today (usually we do go to a grocery store before a show and get some food to keep in the booth - but for some reason we just didn't this time!) and at this point I hadn't eaten breakfast, nor lunch. Now any of you that know me, know that I LIKE to eat! And if any of you know me really well .....you know I wouldn't be pleasant to be around on really empty belly!!
Now I also have to point out that although there were three of us in the booth, Jeanne was teaching classes on and off most of the day, which really only left two of us in avery busy booth, so we couldn't leave the complex.
Now, I must have been my quiet typical self (hee hehe!) as a customer overheard me telling Jo our dilemma. She (Darcy Neufeld Mockford) asked if she could go pick something up for us! I thought that was just so sweet, but I could not ask her to do that for us! Here she was a young Mom away from her FIVE children for the day - her SIXTH child (a baby) with her, and her SEVENTH in her belly, enjoying her day off from family obligations at the show.
She absolutely insisted that she wanted to do this for us!! When we realized she absolutely wanted to do this, we finally relented and asked her if she would be so kind as to grab us sandwiches from Tim Hortons up the street.
She left with our orders rambling around in her head! (Mother of nearly 7, it's like she has super powers!) And came back with our sandwiches, coffees and even a box of muffins!!!
I dived into that sandwich like a starving person! (well I was, ok!?) I don't think I had even been so grateful for an egg salad sandwich ever!! It hit the spot. And it wasn't a greasy burger or fries which I was also very grateful for.
Now Darcy was such an angel for doing this for us - and to top it all off - she wouldn't even let us pay for our lunches!!! She insisted it was her treat and asked one thing of us in return. That we "pay it forward".
So not only is this blog about sharing Darcy's kindness to us when we really needed it, but also a lesson to everyone out there about human spirit. And Darcy's reminder that we all need to 'Pay it Forward' once in a while to make this world a better place!!
THANK YOU DARCY!!!
You are an inspiring young woman!
xoxo
