A SILVER MIRACLE
19th April 2021
Dear Colin,
I want to share something remarkable with you.
I went to Sydney with two of my best friends, Nicole from Perth, and Sue, who lives locally – for three days. It’s an annual tradition that got shelved during our lock down last year. We have massages, manis and pedis, drink champagne, shop a little (or a lot in the case of Sue) and eat at some nice restaurants. I love these women.
There was a sale on at the Kathmandu store in Kent Street, close to the apartment we were staying in. I wanted a new down jacket to walk the dogs in during winter, and they were on sale from $250 down to $99. I tried on several in different sizes and colours. Sue suggested we go to another store, Uniclo, to check out their range. So we walked there and I did the same, trying on several. On the way back to the first store, we found another Kathmandu store in Pitt St to buy what I had first seen – so I went in and tried on a few more there. Then we decided to go back to the original store. (Typical woman, I hear you say). But they wanted a coffee first. I don’t drink coffee, but I sat with them. And as I did, I looked down at my right wrist – and gasped. Two of my beautiful Zambian silver woven bracelets you gave me when I was 20 (or for my 21st?) were missing.
I kept staring at my wrist, hoping they would magically reappear. Then I had an awful faint memory of pulling my arm out of a jacket, and it was hard to do, against the elasticated cuff of the sleeve. I started to weep, knowing that they were in one of the stores, in one of the jackets. I HATE losing anything, and these bracelets are so much a part of me, I have worn them almost every day for fifty years. Sue took charge and said “We’re going to find them – we’ll retrace our footsteps!” I thought it was a lost cause. Which store? Which jacket? SOOOOO many people shopping? But back we went. Kathmandu in Pitt St, checking the right sleeves of dozens of jackets in several colours, crawling on the floor under displays, feeling through racks and racks. Nothing. I wrote a note and left it with the attendants who were very kind: “I have lost two precious silver bangles. They are Zambian silver, and were given to me for my 21st birthday in Zambia, 50 years ago, by a man I loved very much. I’m so sad. Please call me if you find them. 0437-571-371.”
We went to Uniclo and did the same thing. And then back to the original Kathmandu store in Kent St. And did the same thing, leaving another note. I was in tears. With the luck we’ve had over the last year, I felt I didn’t have much hope in finding them.
We had booked a massage and duly turned up for the appointment. My heart ached all the way through it. I kept kicking myself for the ‘memory’ I had of struggling to get the jacket off my wrist, and not ‘knowing’ I had lost them. Back at the hotel, I checked my phone which had been silenced through the massage. And THERE WAS A MESSAGE from one of the sales assistants in Kathmandu Kent St (which we had just walked past on our way back to the apartment!) saying “Someone has handed in your two silver bracelets.” I burst into tears again and rushed back to the shop. The assistant, Aaina, had gone home, but a young man returned them to me beaming. He said they had put my note up in the staff room and everybody was charmed by it. I could NOT BELIEVE IT. My faith in humanity was restored, and the thought ‘possibly our luck has turned’ drumming in my mind. Were it not for Covid restrictions, I would have kissed him. I wrote her a thank you note on a scrap of paper, and returned the two missing bracelets to my wrist to join the other three.
The next morning, I went and bought a beautiful pot plant and had it gift wrapped from a florist, wrote a card, and took it to the store. Aaina was having her day off, so I never met her. But a day later, she texted me a beautiful message: “Dearest Sandra, Thank you so, so, so much for the flowers and absolutely kind words. Words cannot express how thoughtful that was, and how much I appreciate it. I received the flowers yesterday, and have set them up in my room! Thank you for including your contact number, when initially hearing about the flowers, I was worried about how to contact you. I’m so glad you got the bracelets back! I’d loe to speak to you on the phone as well. I have uni classes till 5 pm, would it be all right to give you a call afterwards? Best, Aaina.”
Well, long story short – we spoke yesterday, at length. Apparently, shortly after I left the note at the store, a woman tried on a jacket and gave the bracelets to Aaina, saying they were stuck in the sleeve ….. Unbelievably, she couldn’t believe it when she read I was from Zambia and so were the bracelets – HER FATHER LIVED IN ZAMBIA! She had spoken to her Dad (keep up with this ….) and he had told her to ask me about Chingola, Kitwe, Mufulira, Luanshya, and Lusaka! As we were speaking, she said “Oh, my Dad is calling me now!” and so she patched him in and then the three of us were talking! He lived there from 1975 – 1977 - An Indian family, his name is Arvind Malik, his father was a chief engineer with the railways, I think, and he lived five houses down from the Presidents House. He was a teenager then and went to Kabulonga High! They returned to India after his assignment was over, and came to Australia about 23 years ago. He was charming and said how wonderful it was to meet someone from ZAMBIA, how much he enjoys meeting South Africans, but has never met a ZAMBIAN! He wants me to go and meet him and his wife and family, or come down for a day and meet us here.
The whole thing was so surreal. I just wanted you to know. And now I have my beautiful, beloved bracelets back on my wrist where they belong. Sue says she was absolutely CERTAIN we would find them, and couldn’t believe we hadn’t after searching all three stores.
Aside: About 18 years ago, I walked into the house where Sue and HER husband Ross and their son (our godson) Sam live, Sam was about four at the time. He shouted “Hello Aunty Sandra!” I asked him how he knew it was me and he said “Because your bracelets jingle!” What a lovely association!
Thank you Colin, for this beautiful gift, all those decades ago. I am so so grateful they were found and returned to me. They are a part of my life, a part of my history, a part of my heart. Blessings on you darling man, with my love and gratitude,
Sandra x
FOOTNOTE: Many of you will know this story, but for those of you who don’t, here is a thumbnail sketch to explain who the man, Colin, mentioned above, is. This is hard to write without detail and without emotion, but here goes:
“I left Gerald about a year after we were married in 1969, as I had fallen in love with my boss, Colin Hills, English by birth. I went to live with him. He was nine years my senior and I loved him deeply. He loved me in the same profound way. Gerald and I were separated for over a year, and I created a lot of hurt and upset and pain in my life and the lives of others during that time, which I regrret with all of my heart – but I have no regrets about what I learned and what I experienced. However, my family and my Catholic upbringing would not let me rest, until Gerald and I had ‘tried again’. So we began a reconciliation one weekend, and on the second day, we were involved in a dreadful car accident, which was not our fault. I was in hospital for weeks, with hundreds of stitches in my smashed face, and my recovery took months, I had plastic surgery a couple of years later, in Australia. During my convalescence, we made a decision to come to Australia, and a few months later, Gerald left Zambia, I followed a few months later.
That was forty seven years ago, and I arrived in Sydney Australia, on 16th April 1974. I was given the bracelets in 1970, and lost the bracelets on 12th April 2021.
But Coming to Australia is Another Story.”