A Nugget From Heaven

At the salon, we’ve been thinking about (and talking about) Margy a lot over the past week or two. Some of you will remember reading the post I wrote about Margy last November, right after her funeral. She was one of my favorite clients at the nail salon ever. EVER. (She was a favorite of just about everyone else who works there, too!)

That post happens to be one of my favorites in the more than 650 I’ve written here at the Scrawl, so I’m going to give you a chance to read it now (or re-read it) before going forward. Click here; it’ll open in a new window. And by the way, I re-read the comments on that post and I’m going to go ahead and warn you to have Kleenex handy. There was no warning last year. You’re welcome.

Take your time. I’ll wait.

Are you back? Okay. Where was I? Oh yes, talking and thinking about Margy.

When I arrived at work today, my boss excitedly said, “Guess who’s coming to the salon for a manicure?”

I didn’t even guess; I hate playing those kinds of games with my boss. I was a total buzzkill: “I give up. Who?”

“Margy’s daughter!”

I was thrilled. Margy’s daughter Julie is a super-nice woman. Julie got married shortly before Margy passed away (Margy was at the wedding, as the very proud mother of the bride); at the salon we agreed that Margy, whose health had been on a steep decline for a while, was “waiting” to get Julie married off before passing. I hope that makes sense because I don’t know how else to explain it.

Shortly after the wedding, Margy ended up in the ICU, where she spent the last two weeks of her life.

During this time, we at the salon were planning our yearly Fall event. It’s an Open House-style party during which we premiere all of our new retail items for the holidays. The event was scheduled on what ended up being two days after Margy’s death and before the funeral.

At some point during the event, a familiar face appeared. It was Julie, fresh from the experience of losing her mother, showing up to our little event. We hugged her, and she said, “My mom would have been here.” And boy, was she right. Margy loved to shop, and every week when she came in to get her nails done, she’d say “Show me what’s new!” She was at all of our events and her deep southern drawl and hearty laugh and “Oh Honey!”s rang out through the salon all the while.

We had, at that event, a vendor who owns a gallery in town, and one of the items she sells is Troll Beads. Troll Beads are HUGE around here. They are the modern-day charm bracelets, in that you choose different beads to represent important things in your life.

Julie spent almost two hours sitting with the Troll Bead lady, making a bracelet. I couldn’t believe she spent so much time in our salon that day, but I also think that she might have been able to “feel” her mother there, alive and laughing and “Oh Honey!”-ing.

Fast forward back to yesterday. I was excited to see Julie and catch up with her while she got her nails done. As it happened, one of the girls was giving my boss a pedicure and one of the girls was in the storage room when Julie arrived, so I was the only one to see her get out of her car. I noticed she was carrying something unexpected.

A baby carrier.

I started shrieking to the others: “You’re not going to believe what Julie’s bringing in!!!”

She walked in, and we met Julie’s first child, Margy’s granddaughter. One of the first things Julie said was, “I know my mom had something to do with this because I NEVER expected we’d get pregnant so soon after the wedding.”

The baby has Margy’s middle name. She is so sweet, and so loved.

We had a great visit, and when Julie and the baby left, I said, “Well, there’s a nugget from heaven if I ever saw one!”

You could say that it was total coincidence that Julie and her husband got pregnant when they did, but I choose to believe that Margy did indeed have a hand in it, giving her daughter a piece of herself from beyond, when she needed it the most.

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