A group of 2 is all that is needed

Support groups come in many forms, the formal ones we join, lunch with friends, dinner with families and even..............at the grocery store. Maybe it is just that I am more aware of the numbers of caregivers because I tell you they are everywhere. There is no prototype or stereotype, they come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, ages......every possible combination has a caregiver and someone needing care. It is one of those gentle miracles that we can miss.

How many times do you go to the grocery store and not talk to any of the employees? How often do we mechanically greet the kid at the counter with the nose ring? As you shop for that new pair of pants do you avoid eye contact with the employees? I know I am very guilty of it. Just get me in and get me done. Well once again I had the karma kick me in the rear.

June 5 is the anniversary of my mom's death. This is still a hard day for me. I doubt I will ever not associate the date with her, but it is getting easier. I almost didn't cry this year. To celebrate her life I bring ice cream to our local firemen as they took her for her last ride. So in the early afternoon, I go to the grocery store to buy supplies. My order was hilarious to an outsider but caught up in my woes I couldn't see it (you know the whole forest for the trees thing). My order consisted of

• 2 half gallons of vanilla ice cream
• 1 half gallon of coffee ice cream
• 3 half gallons of chocolate ice cream
• 1 half gallon of strawberry ice cream
• 1 jar of chocolate sauce
• 1 jar of hot fudge
• 1 jar of caramel
• 1 jar of cherries
• 1 Diet Pepsi

Can you imagine what it looked like? Well the lady in front of me at the register found it very funny indeed. She kept watching as I unloaded on box after another of ice cream. Finally, she cracked. She told me it looked like I was having some party. I thought for a minute and proudly said "Yes I am". I explained who the ice cream was for and why.

This unbelievably put together woman, I mean she had it going on. Shoes, hair, nails, clothes all of it, loses it right there in line. She chokes up and shares that she lost her mother in February (4 months ago at the time of this writing). Immediately, we had a bond. We knew we had been in the same place and were both coming out of it. What a blessing. We talked, we hugged and we both left the grocery store with a little more than we planned.