worst

Aside from the children and husband dying, and the house catching on fire, the very worst thing happened. (This may or may not have a happy ending.)

I was at Winco. With all four children.

The end.

Okay, seriously, another worst thing really happened. At Winco you have to bag your own groceries. I was doing this and then I paid the cashier for my food. I finished loading the bags into the grocery cart, gathered up the kids, walked outside to the parking lot, approached my van and then stopped cold.

I could not find my purse anywhere.

I searched the cart finding nothing and rushed back inside remembering that I had set my purse on top of the middle console where the paper bags are held. I remembered placing the change from the cashier inside my bag before loading the kids to leave. I walked straight to the spot. My purse was not there. I asked the cashier if he had seen it. He had not. I searched my cart again. No purse. Feeling quite frantic but keeping relatively calm, I thought, maybe I had dropped it on the parking lot when I was leaving? I rushed outside again. Nothing. I should mention that I was doing an awful lot of praying. I thought, go back inside and ask customer service if someone had dropped it off. I asked them. Nothing. At this point, I was at a dead end. My purse contained all of our monthly grocery cash, my cell phone, car keys, house keys, and pretty much the whole of our paper existance. I was shaken.

At customer service I wrote down my name just in case and turned around to walk to, well, I didn't really know. Then I saw a lady. She was approaching me very quickly from the other end of the store. And she was holding my purse! As I thanked her, very profusely, relief washed over me so intensely that I couldn't hold back the tears. But get this. She said that someone had left it in a cart outside.

I don't really know what to make of that.