This week I was sorting and getting together old paperback novels and various other books no longer required and I was taking them to my local library for the community bookstore. The community bookstore is for local groups to help raise a little money and the books are very reasonably priced.
My lucky find came about when there was one book which I had only read about 50 pages. One of those books I just couldn't get interested in and had been sitting on the top of the giveaway collection for some months. Before I put it in the discard box I asked my husband if he wanted to read it, and, I was just thumbing through the pages when on page 92 I found $150.00. Now why would I have $150.00 in this book, and the only explanation is that my son's board money and I was possibly reading the book at the time. Talk about a lucky find and imagine the surprise someone may have had if I hadn't been flicking though the pages.
This instantly took me back many years before, when I was helping my in-laws pack up the house for their big move to a new unit in a retirement village. During the week Dad-in-law was supposed to go through his spare cupboard and throw out anything that wasn't important. To me this was to throw out all his old tax returns dating back to the 60's, and stuff that hadn't seen the light of day for many years. This was difficult task for him to do, so on one the many Saturdays, my daughter and I started cleaning out the old cupboard. We came across a shoe box with some old stuff and papers, but under the papers there was a $1000.00. Obviously he didn't get very far with this task although he said he had finished what he needed to do. When I asked him if he wanted to the old shoe box, he said that he will just make sure there wasn't anything in it he may want to keep. My daughter and I watched as he proceeded to go through this box, and to his surprise on looking at the contents said that he didn't think he would throw out the box. He had completely forgotten about the money which had been put away for any emergency which may occur
Many years later my mum-in-law who was beyond caring for herself went into a nursing home. I had decided to pack her shoes without the boxes and lucky I did as I found money hidden in a shoe box underneath the shoes which were still nicely wrapped in their tissue paper. From then on everything was searched thoroughly for any other hidden treasures.
I still have all the 60th wedding anniversary cards as well as Mum-in-law's 90th birthday cards. Will I go through them just in case something has been hidden.
