For several years, I worked for a woman who sold vintage and secondhand purses. I was in charge of cleaning, listing, and photographing the bags.

One day, I sold the most beautiful Brahmin. It was their Melbourne leather in a beautiful magenta pink and looked hardly used. Since I thought it was such a beautiful bag, I spent longer than usual hyper-focusing on cleaning every little crevice. I wanted it to be perfect since it was in such great condition. I turned all of the linings inside out and made sure it was spotless. Then I sent it out.

About a week later, I received a message from the buyer. She wanted to know if I had put a Virgin Mary pendant inside it. I told her that no, I hadn't and that I was confused what she was talking about. I apologized that it was in there and hoped it wasn't an issue. She messaged back in disbelief saying that her mother had recently died and had always worn a pendant just like that. She had been struggling to manage her grief, and that rather than being upset, she was so grateful that the pendant had seemingly by magic found its way inside the bag.

Though it was just a small little pendant, I could tell that it meant a lot to her, truly a miracle. I don't have all the answers for these strange things that happen, but I hope that we can recognize them in our lives and find comfort through them. This is one of my favorite stories from work over the years.