An “Encounter” at Festival

So…

something VERY unusual happened at Quilt Festival and it has nothing to do with the constant rain, or flooding or close encounters with runaway scooters even though all of those things DID happen and WERE unusual!  This involves a very dramatic and amazing encounter with a person I met during the Quilt Festival.
(And just so you know, I’ll acknowledge right up front that there will very likely be a wide difference of opinion about the circumstances I’m getting ready to describe, and that’s OK.)

I was standing at my counter looking up the aisle at a decent crowd of customers who had just rounded the corner when a woman came out of that crowd walking straight toward my booth. This isn’t that unusual. Attendees often have a list of vendors they want to see first and foremost, and they make it a point to go to those booths first, so I didn’t think anything of this until I saw her face and realized that she looked exactly, and I do mean EXACTLY like my grandmother!….

She was smiling, and looking directly at me, and I could feel my legs wobble a bit. And when she said “Good Morning” in that singsong way my grandmother always spoke, I knew my eyes were welling up. When she got to the counter I knew I had to say something or she would think I was some kind of nutjob but my throat was tightening up, so I just said, “Please excuse me, but you look just like my grandmother.”

Just as I heard myself saying those words I instantly regretted it, thinking it might just offend her, but it didn’t bother her at ALL. She smiled broadly and said “Really? Would you like to take my picture?” Which of course I did as you can see (above left). Then she said “Maybe send that to your Mom? It’ll make her feel better today.” She went on to ask me a couple more questions like “what was your grandmother’s name” and such, but I have almost no recollection of them because I was so stunned by her comment about my Mom. Before she left she asked me if I’d like to give her a hug, which I gladly came out of my booth to do and then she left but not before reminding me to “send that picture to your Mom”, and as I watched her walk off and I felt a tinge of sadness as my vision was obscured by other customers and I realized I had never even asked her what her name was.  🙁

Once I “came to my senses” I made note of what struck me as so unusual (weird?) about this encounter (besides of course her physical similarity to my grandmother) so I could tell the story to my husband and of course my Mom.

To me she looked most like the Nana I remember from when I was a young girl, when she was in her 40’s or so. I wish I had a better picture of her at that age, but most my pictures have aged and are badly focused. These pictures were taken at her 80th birthday party, with my Mom (above left) and also with my nephew Shawn (below).

Add to that, the fact that we came an eyelash from a rollover wreck on a rain-soaked interstate (of course) as we were driving home from the airport in NC. We got pushed out of our lane by an 18-wheeler, which sent us fishtailing into the emergency lane and an almost certain date with a downhill embankment. My husband’s a former cop and a fantastic driver, but even he admits that he felt we were supernaturally protected from a horrible outcome that afternoon. I STILL don’t see how he alone pulled us out of that spin.

So there’s my story, which I know leaves mostly questions, and very few certainties…

I ‘ve done a whole LOT of thinking about things since this happened. I’ve talked to quite a few people about the encounter and the subsequent events and I’ve come to certain conclusions, none of which I can prove of course.

But I thought I’d recount the story for you, just to see what YOU think? 
Do you have an opinion about this encounter that you’d like to share? have you ever had a similar experience you’d like to share? If so, please feel free to do so in the space provided below. Please remember however, that we all come from different backgrounds and belief systems and all comments at the very least need to be respectful of that.
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