It had been a wonderful Thanksgiving at my daughter’s home. Having sufficiently overeaten, our extended family was now settled: the men parked in front of the TV for football, the women chatting on the lanai. At one point Amy headed back into the kitchen to fix dessert for her husband. When the dogs began to bark, Amy heard a faint knock at the door. Opening the door, she found a stranger, a blind woman. Amy welcomed her and listened to her story.

After a bit, Amy came to the lanai to call me and her stepmom. “There’s someone here I’d like you to meet.” While Amy prepared a meal for her, Cheryl told us how she ended up on our doorstep alone and hungry. The man she lived with had gone to visit his family for the weekend. Because of her blindness, Cheryl was embarrassed to go with him. So she lied to him, telling him she had friends coming to get her and sent him on his way. Thinking she too would be away, he didn’t leave much food. Now she had run out of bread, milk and fruit. She was unable to search the cupboards or freezer to find something else to prepare.

But how did she find us? Cheryl explained  she was so hungry that she just had to find someone to help her get food. She knew of one neighbor man who talked to her friend over the back fence. She didn’t know his name, but thought he seemed nice. She believed he lived next door to a house where loud music played frequently. So she decided if she followed the sound of the loud music, she could probably find him.

She walked to the street, turned left and walked to the corner. She kept following the sound of the music. She turned left again down the block. Suddenly the music stopped; she was getting disoriented without the music to follow. At the end of the street she could make out a house, maybe where the nice man lived. She walked to the door of what was my daughter’s home and knocked. When Amy answered the door she found a tearful, scared, desperate young woman. As Christians, we marveled at how God chose to put her in our path . . . or us in her path.

After about two hours of friendly chatting, it was time to help Cheryl find her way home. She didn’t know exactly where she was or how she got there, but she gave Amy her address to enter into her GPS. After a quick ride down the hill, I got out to give Cheryl a big hug. I told her she was very brave and that I admired her so much. I believed God orchestrated this whole evening to let her see her own worth and how much He loves her. A big smile spread across her face and she said, “I haven’t smiled like this in so long . . . I’m sure it’s going to last at least two months!”

Amy walked Cheryl to the door carrying a bag full of prepared meals for the next few days. As they exchanged phone numbers, Amy thanked her for blessing our Thanksgiving with her presence. It was truly a Thanksgiving miracle.

Linda Ware

Adapted from the complete story shared with the Stephen Ministers this week.