Yesterday a woman approached the framing counter. She was a bit shorter than me, wavy, gray hair cut off straight that reached just beneath her ears, dark brown horn rimmed glasses and a colorful floral patterned blouse. She had a rather serious demeanor and she was looking for a “sticky board.” I quizzed her a bit to find out just what she might be sticking on this “sticky board” and that is when I saw a grimace sprawl across her face. “Well, she said in a rather disgusted tone, I have a picture. It’s a reproduction of an old family photo and it looks absolutely terrible in the frame it’s in. It’s all wrinkled around the edges and I just hate it. I thought that maybe, if I was able to stick it on a board the wrinkled edges might flatten out and it wouldn’t look so awful on my wall.”
I told her that we didn’t carry any “sticky boards” but that I had a few ideas and if I could see the photo I could probably help her out. She didn’t have it with her but I could already tell she was just a tiny bit excited that perhaps I might come to the rescue of this miserable old picture. She asked, “When are you here tomorrow?” After discussing my schedule she left.
First thing this morning I saw her approaching my counter. As she removed the towel from the old chipped oval frame I began to catch sight of this miserable picture. I love old pictures even if I don’t know the people in them and I said, “Oh, this is soooooo neat!” She let out a sigh of disbelief and after expelling a rather large breath she said, “Well, not really.” I started to realize there was a bit more to her story than the wrinkles in the photo but before I could think of a way to tactfully ask she offered, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.
A few years ago this woman’s niece decided to take an old family picture of my customer’s mother, her mother’s sisters and her mother’s parents and enlarge just the picture of her mother’s sister that had passed away a few months after the picture was taken and edit it so that it appeared above the group shot. The person doing the edit accidentally enlarged the wrong sister and my customer’s mother ended up at the top. Of course the editor created a new photo with the correct person enlarged but the niece ended up with both. She didn’t want the one that was created first and asked my customer if she wanted to buy it. The niece said she paid $200 for it but would sell it for $100. Leanna (my customer) thought her only remaining aunt should have it but knew she wouldn’t be able to pay $100 for it so Leanna paid for it, gave it to her aunt and was convinced that the niece really didn’t pay a dime for it as it was a mistake. Eventually Leanna’s aunt passed away and this dastardly picture made it’s way back to Leanna which forced her to remember the transaction with her greedy niece.
It was perched inside an old, brown oval frame with bubble glass and the reason it appeared to be wrinkled around the edges was because it had no backing and it was falling towards the bowed out glass.
I told her I had an idea that might work. She had told me the day before and reminded me again that she didn’t want to spend a lot on this damn picture. What she didn’t know is that is something I hear every day and every day I find ways to make things happen just as they need to.
We agreed on a two step process involving my vacuum press even after I told her there was a 10% chance her picture may not survive. She sort of snorted and chuckled at the same time in a sort of “goodbye and good riddance” type of way and off she went.
I entered my “magic kingdom” and went to work on her miserably wrinkled photo right away as I wasn’t as swamped today as I typically am and honestly, I was curious to see if what I had suggested was actually going to bring a smile to her very serious face.
The first part of the process went flawlessly so I had a pretty good feeling about the second process. It too went just as I had hoped. Next I touched up the scratches in her old frame a bit, cleaned the unique old glass and put everything together. Once it was finished I gave her call. I told her, in a very excited tone, that her order was finished and that I couldn’t wait for her to see it.
What I heard on the other end of the phone was a completely different woman. I could feel her positive energy flowing from her voice. She said, “My husband has the car right now but you’re there until 9pm, right?” I said I was off at 5:30 but that someone would help her if she stopped in when I was gone. She said, “No way. I want to pick it up when you’re there. I just knew I could trust you when I talked to you yesterday!!! I am sooooo excited!!!”
I wasn’t so sure I had dialed the right number. This was clearly NOT the woman I had visited with earlier….it just wasn’t.
Because she wasn’t sure she would be able to come in before I left we discussed my hours for tomorrow and after telling her how excited I was for her, we ended the call.
Approximately two hours later I was told there was a couple at the framing counter and they asked for me specifically. As I peeked my head around the corner I saw Leanna and a man I was pretty sure had to be her husband. The smile sprawled across her face was extraordinary and so unlike the woman I had seen just two short hours before and as I removed the wrapping from this nasty old photo she hated so much I saw a little girl reconnect with a mother she hadn’t seen for so many years. I saw every bit of bitterness held onto for a greedy niece wiped away. I saw unimaginable joy and as I was re-wrapping her “treasure” she said, “I really didn’t know why I decided I needed to do something with this picture but now I know that my mom was asking and this was my way of not letting her down.”
5 responses to “Mother Knows Best”
You did it again Bev! You haven’t lost your touch. It is so nice to hear your stories that end with someone feeling so very happy! Thank you!!
Thank you so much Marian! I enjoy all the stories my customers share and it seems almost all of them find a place in my heart!
Beautiful story. Beautifully written.
Thanks so much Cyndi! I haven’t written for a while but getting back to it feels great and positive feedback always feels wonderful!
Never a disappointment! You write so beautifully and tell a story just the way it should be told. Absolutely love your stories!