Silver Reclaimed

 It’s funny how you remember things so wrong sometimes.  I would have sworn the two silver trays were huge, when in fact they are about 12” across.  But what really matters is I now have them and they will be ours forever.

The case for UPS however is not looking so good.  Not only did they deliver my package to the wrong (nonexistent) address, but they also left it just inside the gate with the “Beware of dog” sign on it, only 10 feet from the street.  So any passerby could easily have taken it.

Just as she said she would, the woman called this morning and left a message when her husband returned from West Virginia with my box in the back seat of his truck.  So I immediately went up the street to claim it.

There was no conscious wrongdoing in the whole saga.  Maybe some negligence on the part of UPS, but no intentional mistakes.  The elderly friend of my mother in Florida had addressed the box incorrectly.  It had gotten delivered despite the fact that it bore a nonexistent address.  The recipients hadn’t opened it, but had instead left it in the back of their truck for some purpose I don’t understand.

But all is now well.  I have two fairly shiny small silver-plated trays.  One bears the engraving “Bay Co. Fair 1967”.  One tray can go to each of my children.  Some day maybe they will tell their children how the trays came to be and how they almost left our family permanently.

This is a case where sentimental value trumps actual value.  But as it turns out, sentimental value sometimes counts for a lot.