I Stopped Doing This

[jimm1]

A few years back, at my craft booth, I advertised "custom pens for a special occasion." I had flyers and many people grabbed them and this became pretty popular for me.
Well, this young lady brings me a piece of her baby's crib and wanted me to turn a pen for her. No big deal, sure. I will be glad to.
It was a two-day fair, so I went home that night and turned the pen. The woman came to my booth the next day for the pen and I asked her what was so special about this.
Her response absolutely floored me. Her baby passed away due to SIDS and she wanted to have this as a memory. After the woman left my booth, I sat there and wept. I mean I cried like no other. I then took these flyers off my table and never advertised this offer again. In no way did I never want someone to come to me with a similar request.
Well, my last craft show, a lady walks up to me and asked if I remembered here. You better believe I remembered her. It was the mom.
She still had her pen, but she also had a beautiful baby girl with her. It was a good meeting. A fun meeting, but when she asked about making, what she called "memory pens," I simply said that I didn't do them much anymore, only for special requests. I didn't want her to know why I stopped.
Anyway, I was asked to do another pen for her, which I did, but for much happier reasons.
I wish you all good health. Hug or call your kid tonight.
Jim

 

[magpens]

Touching, Jim !

 

[edicehouse]

Wow, hard day.

 

[1080Wayne]

I think that would make me reconsider my initial decision . The pen had obviously helped her to deal with her loss , and she really appreciated what you had done for her .

 

[leehljp]

Thanks for sharing that!
God bless you!

 

[jttheclockman]

Jim you did good. Thank you for the story.



It sometimes is amazing the people you run into and then hear the stories of their lives. I have been doing craft shows for over 30 years and became friends with many people even if it was a casual high as they pass my booth.

I belonged to a few scroll sawing sites over the years and a few of them used to have a Christmas ornament exchange such as we do with pens. Well one time I got a partner that told a story that she and her son always trimmed their Christmas tree together. The father passed away some years prior but they kept the tradition on. She went on to tell us that she would not be doing the tree that year because her son passed away and she did not have the strength to do it. Talk about getting hit in the gut. She had posted a photo of them one year trimming the tree. I told her that I was still sending her an ornament and I want nothing in return. Just enjoy it.

I set out to make her one of my birdhouse ornaments and sent long a stand to display it. But what I also did was copy the photo of her son trimming the tree and cropped his photo out and made a decal and made a pen with it. Sent that to her and she could not have been happier. I wish I could have seen her eyes when she got it but the thought of such a simple gester to take some pain away made me feel good. Here is that gift. I will always remember this.