Kindness of Strangers

My sister Lynda called. "Thanks for the stuff. Your boxes arrived today."

I was relieved. I had wondered whether they were wrapped well enough to make it from Maryland to North Carolina through the US Mail - - unscathed.

"Yeah, the mailman brought them. He wouldn't get out of his car. Made Henry come out and get them - said they were too heavy for him to tote - and then he told Henry - 'If I didn't know you - you would never have gotten them - we should have sent them back."

"Why, Lynda? What's the matter."

"Because you sent it to the wrong address."

"No, I didn't. I sent it to the same address I always send things."

"I know you did, Ellouise - and its always wrong!"

" How can that be? You always get my mail, don't you."

" Yes - but that's because the woman who lives there brings it to me - one day she drove her golf cart clear across the Green to give me a letter - "here you have something from you sister again."

'Well if its not coming to you - where is it going?"

" To our old house - you know, the one we moved out of 7 years ago."

" Lynda, why didn't you tell me it was wrong."

" Oh, I don't know. You usually call and you don't send stuff that often - I thought it was funny - not worth worrying about. But now - if you are going to be sending BIG stuff - Henry says you have to send it to the right place. We can't count on the mail man always being the same and knowing who we are."

I guess its time to update my address book.