I greet this day with love in my heart… Og Mandino

This one sentence has made a huge impact on my life in many ways, but the events of this week made it even more important.

As a Realtor for nearly forty years, I’ve been the listing agent for a rental community in a nearby town for seventeen years.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a woman and then also by her friend who was helping her with her search. Meg and Jim met me at the complex a couple of weeks ago, and Meg wanted to see the first floor unit that is now vacant.

Jim was driving her to help out as Meg recently had brain surgery and needed assistance getting around. I could see she wasn’t very steady on her feet, and the back of her head had been shaved for the surgery.

I felt great compassion for this woman, and my usual empathy was heightened by my new resolve to greet every one and silently say, “I love you”.

She spent some time checking out the unit, and I answered her questions patiently and with kindness. We talked about where to put her piano in the room as Jim told me Meg is a concert pianist.

When she was saying good-bye, she suddenly gave me a hug. While she took me a bit by surprise, I hugged her back saying, “hugs are always welcome”. She promised to get back to me once she had thought about it and had discussed it with Jim.

About a week went by, and she sent me an email saying she wanted to fill out the application for the apartment, so I sent her the link to the application on the development’s online portal. She couldn’t seem to navigate that route, so I offered to meet her at the Residence Inn where she had been staying to fill out the old fashioned paper application form we used to use.

We set up an appointments to meet and fill out the application form. Then she called to say she had spoken with her doctor, and he told her she wasn’t ready to live on her own and should stay where she was now living.

When she told me this, I completely understood and told her I would be there to help her when she was ready and to just to let me know. This was a different response as ordinarily I would be silently lamenting the time I had wasted showing the unit, setting up appointments that had been cancelled, and so on.

This past week, on Wednesday, I got a call from Jim which wasn’t unusual. He had called me several times before when he needed to be in touch to help Meg with the process. This call was different however.

He wanted me to know Meg had passed away the weekend before. They didn’t yet know what had happened, but she was found in her room by the manager when Jim couldn’t get in touch with her.

Meg’s death affected me in a quiet but profound way. Our brief but warm exchange would not have been as meaningful or as warm had I not been in the mindset of living my life and greeting people with love in my heart.

I’m grateful for this experience.