Crashing Ladies' Night....

First of all, he crashed ladies night.

Ladies night is the weekly evening to which a few chosen ladies are invited to attend with one minor prerequisite:
you must engage in some form of exercise prior to bellying up to the bar for a beer.  Bathing kids does not count.

My father in law insisted that he'd cycled earlier in the day.
So, we let him in for a pint.

It turns out that this non-lady shared the most compelling story of ladies night.

Not more than a day earlier he intercepted a very lost elderly woman on the side of the road near his office.  She waved him down in somewhat of a panic.  He noticed that she was a bit flustered so he encouraged her to pull aside, park the car, and rest for a bit under his watch.

She was lost.

She was very, very lost.

And, one of the first things she told my father in law is that she needed to use the restroom.  (That made my heart hurt a bit when I heard it the first time).

Once her car was parked, he escorted her across the street to his office and provided her with a clean bathroom, a cold cup of water and, most importantly, compassion.

To make a shorter story of a longer story, he drove her home in her own car (followed by his co-worker so they could get back to their office) and it was a 40 mile (one-way) excursion.  Perhaps, the most incredible part of the story is that - while she was intercepted 40 miles from her home... she actually had set out to travel only a few miles from the senior center and back to her home - in her home town.  Somehow she took many wrong turns and ended up in my father in law's shadow.

Gosh, I thought, as I listened to the details. 

How very sad, I thought.  Emah asked, "Did she know who she was?"

On the other hand I couldn't help but think
how perfect that my father in law was the one to intercept her.

In my mind, there could not be a more understanding, compassionate, caring, and attentive person for this elderly lady to have found.   It was a meeting meant to happen.

And so,  he can crash ladies night as often as he'd like -
if it means he'll come around armed with stories that make us pause, reflect, and regard him as an even more kind, incredible and compassionate man than we had the day before.