The gift I got twice

My daughter knows I love gardening, and every spring I have a long list of plants and yard toys that I want to buy. For Mother’s Day she called a local nursery and ordered a gift certificate which she emphasized had to be delivered before Sunday. On Saturday, as I was leaving for a meeting, I stopped at the mailbox to see if the mail had come. There was one lonely envelope from The Growing Place. It had a stamp on it, but it had not been cancelled. I thought to myself that it was likely some sort of advertisement that they had hand-delivered to everyone in the neighborhood. I decided to leave it in the mailbox to be picked up with the other mail which would be delivered that day.

On Mother’s Day, Heidi asked if I had received the gift certificate. “Oh,” I said, “I saw it, but it’s still in the mailbox.” Randy offered to go right out and get it. The mailbox was empty. We tried to remember who had brought the mail in the day before, where they had put it, etc. We searched the entire house. We searched both cars. We went through the trash piece by piece. The envelope was not there. I could only think that someone had taken my Mother’s Day gift from the mailbox! Oh, why hadn’t I taken the envelope out of the box when I saw it?!

My suspicions were correct. Someone did take the envelope out of the mailbox! When the mailman saw it with an un-cancelled stamp he thought it had been put there for pickup. Even though it was addressed to me at this address, he took the envelope back to the post office where it was sent to Bedford Park for sorting. Then it was shipped back to our post office where that same mailman sorted it for delivery and then put it back in the mailbox where he originally found it. I didn’t get it by Sunday, but it will be just as much fun to spend. I’m going to The Growing Place today.