~~~ UPDATE re: Mary Beth ~~~ [View All]

[Dangerously Amused]

As promised. :)

First part of the story here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=8339749


So I contacted Joe and he remembered signing the book. Joe added that he has given away literally dozens of copies of this book to family, friends and business associates over the years.

Joe was traveling at the time I contacted him and asked me for the book’s location (ie which particular store had it) so he could retrieve it when he returned. I told him that the book would probably be long gone by then as it is a very popular book. However, I told him that as I was in the area the following day for a conference I would go back and buy the book for him. And I did.

I met Joe a few days later (Dec 23rd) at his office. I handed him the book and he confirmed that it was indeed his inscription to his sister, Mary Beth. Joe also remembered sending the book to Mary Beth through the mail from his office, and confirmed that with his secretary. Joe did express amusement that he signed his last name in the book. I asked him if maybe the book was intended for a different Mary Beth, but he said no, there was only one Mary Beth and it was his sister.

Joe had called Mary Beth in the meantime and told her the story. Mary Beth said she never received the book. (Yes, yes, I know… maybe she did receive it and thought it was a silly book and gave it away, or whatever. Or, maybe she never did receive the book. Who are we to say? And you know what? It really doesn’t matter.)

So Joe and I sat and had a good long talk. He turned out to be a very engaging and interesting guy with some unique experiences in life (was one of Brett Favre’s business partners when Brett was still with the Packers, and rubs elbows with a few other well known folks) and had great stories to tell. We had some interests and philosophies in common and btw, Joe is a big Obama supporter. Several hours flew right by. We parted with the promise to get in touch again after the holidays.

So Joe called yesterday and told me that he took the book with him to his family’s Christmas gathering and handed the book to Mary Beth, along with a copy of the email I wrote to him telling the story of how I came to find the book. He said Mary Beth was moved to tears both by his thoughtful inscription to her, by the fact that a complete stranger cared enough about what happened to her to make an effort to find out, and by all the positive energy generated by this sequence of events. He said that later in the day they had a tradition where everyone in the family (about 45 adults, they have a large family) gathered to discuss events from the past year and to offer prayers and good wishes for each other’s needs for the upcoming year. He said Mary Beth wanted him to read the email and tell the story at that gathering as well, so he did and everyone loved it.

So… what happens next? No idea. Joe is a great guy, charismatic and creative, a businessman with some interesting connections and a patron of the arts, and I am (among other things, ha ha) an artist, so maybe there will be a mutually beneficial connection for us in the future. Who knows? In the meantime I have made a cool new friend and I am deeply grateful that I took that risk and the events turned out as well as they did. What a wonderful experience!

So thanks everybody for giving me good advice when I hesitated to reach out to a stranger, and thanks for your support throughout and for sharing in my joyful experience! It has certainly served as a wonderful illustration to me of the fact that we never know how far our actions, both good and bad, ripple put into the universe and touch the lives of others.

:)