My Mum's Stolen Purse, The Pediatrician and The Happy Ending!

Truth they say is stranger than fiction and I have just realized now that as cliched and trite as that may sound, it really is true.

So my mum came by Monday afternoon and we were chatting and having a good laugh about stuff in general. She then brings out her purse (which I bought for her last month while in Dubai) and I said to her that in a funny way, this purse reminds me of another purse she had when I was very young and which was stolen from me when she'd given it to me for safe keeping one evening when we were out.

* Begin Flashback*

I was about 5 years old and my mum was pregnant with my 2nd brother - we were at this time, on a family holiday to London which would double as a 'birthing' trip for my mum. One evening, my mum herds my immediate younger brother and I to the laundromat to get some laundry done and in order to ease things for her heavily pregnant frame while she sorted out the laundry; she hands me her purse for safe keeping. I remember putting it in the pocket of my red anorak and sitting down to watch the goings on around me. My mum turns to me at some point to ask for her purse, I in turn put my hand in my pocket to get the purse and somehow that purse had developed wings and flown off. I had just been rudely baptized into the world of nimble fingered pick pockets.

I remember a rapid succession of feelings of confusion then fear because I knew that she probably had money inside and I would forever be the one who lost mummy's purse in London when given the responsibility of holding on to it ( my mum told me that maybe subconsciously that's why in buying her a purse, I chose one that looks so much like the one that got stolen).

*End of Flashback*

And that was how my holiday was marred by some person who I never even  saw and as far as I believed, that was the end of my mum's purse...... or so I thought all these years.

My mum proceeds to tell me with a look of remembered wonder on her face the almost unbelievable chain of events that followed that night.

So,luckily, just before we went out that evening, she'd taken out all her money from her purse and left only a ten pound note in it. The thief had taken out the money, and dropped the purse at some corner somewhere. A good Samaritan comes along, sees the purse, picks it up and looks through the contents to determine if there was a number with a name he could call and send the purse to. 

Now incidentally, just before my mum left Lagos, someone had given her a card for a Dr. Lewis who was a pediatrician. Dr. Lewis's card was there and so was my mum's business card with a Nigerian number on it. The Samaritan now calls Dr. Lewis and lets him know that his 'wife' had lost her purse (my mum is Mrs. Lewis so naturally that was the assumption never mind the strange number on Mrs. Lewis's card lol) and he would like to mail it to him. Dr. Lewis for some reason doesn't think twice about it and sends his address to this Samaritan who goes ahead and posts the purse to the good doctor. (The good old 80's eh? Imagine this scenario playing out in this present clime - who will send their address to a complete stranger? lolll)

Upon receiving it, Dr. Lewis realizes (of course) by looking through the contents that the Mrs. Lewis in question is not his wife and keeps the purse somewhere in the office, forgetting about it.

Fast forward to the point where my mum has now had her baby and is in hospital recovering. A consulting pediatrician is doing the rounds and it is none other than (yep you guessed right) Dr. Lewis!

He reaches her and the resident doctors introduce 'Mrs. Lewis from Nigeria' to which he replies after a few moments, with a puzzled look 'Did you happen to lose a purse recently?' and in surprise my mum said yes!

Lolll! I was laughing in amazement as she recounted the story! It's the freakiest thing ever! Yet it happened just as I've said. The doctor posted the purse to the apartment we were staying at (though at the time he did, we'd left and so the purse still remained lost to my mum)  and eventually became my brother's pediatrician.

I love stories like this and I knew I had to share it with everyone even though it's completely unrelated to hair or healthy living!!!!