I think it was my 13th birthday. We were having dinner at County Line in Lubbock ( my favorite place to eat). My mom and dad gave me a pearl and diamond necklace. I loved it. It was beyond special to me and I reserved wearing it for special occasions…. I haven’t thought about this necklace in over 20 years… until tonight.
This morning Keaton and I were headed to my office. He didn’t have school and his camp at the ninja gym didn’t start until 9:00. We had it all planned out. He would come to the office with me for a bit. He would read or have me show him the amazingness of Excel and then I would drop him off. As we got in the car at 7:30, I remembered I needed gas. We stopped at a station a few minutes later. It was then I realized all my credit cards and cash were gone from my wallet. I thought for a moment if I took them out, but knew I had not. I called Matthew and started to head back to the house.
The next hour included both of us calling banks to cancel credit cards and debit cards. Thankfully only one charge was pushed through. It was an hour of intense work, but nothing we couldn’t do. As I drove Keaton to ninja gym he stated he was scared. I let him know it was all ok. I also let him know how fortunate we are that we can have money stolen and it won’t impact our week.
As I relayed the story to friends at work, so many stated how horrible it was. I was shocked because while I saw it as an inconvenience, it was not close to horrible… It was not until tonight that I realized the difference in my thinking.
We were doing our gratefuls (we do it every night). As we were talking about the day and the stolen money and credit cards I stated it was not anything compared to being robbed when I was in grad school. Keaton then started asking about it. He then said, wasn’t some of your jewelry stolen (first I don’t even remember telling him this and warning that he remembers everything). Before I knew it I had tears in my eyes as I said, yes a pearl and diamond necklace. I stopped myself because so much of my other jewelry was stolen at the time, but for some reason the necklace stood out.
As I was saying good night to Keaton he started crying saying he was so sorry about the necklace. His empathy and compassion almost was too much. At that moment, I knew any heartache didn’t compare to the goodness that this 9 year old offers. I held him with tears streaming down my face.
So yes, I had cash and my credit cards stolen. We are fortunate this is a hassle and not detrimental. I view it as small because they didn’t take a part of my mom that can never be replaced. They took plastic not a pearl and diamond necklace that holds so many memories.
Amy Bigbee Grosso, PhD 