The Miracle of Luisa

I've made it a quest to find loveliness in the world and it turns out that once I opened my eyes, the good things of the world have been almost knocking me off my feet. For example, the little incident that happened to me this week:

Tuesday I returned from a trip to Utah and between my birthday, getting engaged, and leaving on a vacation, I forgot to deposit my roommate’s rent check in my bank account. A small, but unfortunate, overdraft fee notification in my inbox brought me back to reality. So, upon my red-eye return, I remembered the rent check, took it off the refrigerator where my roommate had left, stuck it in my back pocket for safe keeping, and laid down for a pre-work “powernap.”

So, of course my powernap went a little longer than expected and of course I rushed off to work, but I kept reminding myself that I had my check in my pocket (that I definitely hadn’t left it at home) and I needed to deposit it at lunch.

At about 9:30, I reached into my pocket to get my check and it was no where to be found. Not in my bag, my front pocket, coat pocket, and especially not my back pocket. No where.

I chalked it up to my blurry, red-eyed memory and made another mental note to look for it when I got home.

At about 10:30 a.m., I got an email from a stranger saying:

I don't know if you're the right Kimberly Calder, but I've found a check for the April rent under your name. I live in NYC. Please feel free to contact me anytime,
-Luisa

She had googled my name and found my website. Though it boosts your vulnerability, I guess it pays to put all of your personal info on the old World Wide Web. (Right here, pre-searching-for-lovliness, I would put in a sarcastic remark like, “Although, I’ll probably get raped next week...” But with my restored hope in humanity and ever-increasing love of New Yorkers, I will leave that comment out for now.)

Gratefully and desperately I wrote her back. She confirmed she had the check and said that she’d meet me on the corner of 55th & 6th at 1:30 and that she is a Spanish woman and would be wearing a beige jacket.

So of course I went to the corner at 1:20 (though, admittedly, all I could think about were Bourne movies--Yes, restored faith in people, but what can I say, my mother raised a skeptic) and I starred at every Latin-looking woman and waved at every woman in a beige, off-white, or brown jacket. At 2:00 she still hadn’t come. Discouraged, I went back to work.

Last night when I got home, I was about to give up on the whole thing and ask my roommate for a new check when Luisa called. She said she couldn’t find me (I think we were on different corners) and she said she would leave the check at the front desk of her office building. I hoped she’d do it. I thanked her as much as I thought I could without seeming kind of kooky and sure enough…Luisa pulled through. Sealed in a teddy bear envelop was the lost rent check.

I don't know how I lucked upon such an honest person. When I told my co-worker the story, she called it "karma," but really, it was a little more miraculous than that. I'm starting to believe that these random interactions with strangers can be some of the most wonderful moments of the day because no matter who they are, every person is wonderful in someway or another.

Whether it was a miracle or karma, I must admit, it's pretty unheard of, especially in New York, and I wanted to tell Luisa that I hope the miracle or the karma comes back to visit her because she was so wonderfully honest.