Return to Me by Peggy Stovesand

It was like any ordinary grocery shopping day for me. I pulled into the parking lot noticing all the cars piled high with skis and snowboards. Still the town had very little snow. I bet I’ll run into some pretty grumpy people today, I thought. Christmas had come and gone with not a dusting of the white stuff.

I jumped out of my car and began to think of how very lucky these people were . . . snow or no snow compared to my daughter’s teacher. This was the day he was having a liver transplant.

The grocery store was crowded and I started down the aisle in a sea of unfamiliar faces. Dan, the teacher who I knew well, was really on my mind. I knew at that very moment he was in surgery getting a new liver.

I had seen a movie about a heart transplant about a month earlier called “Return to Me”. The scenarios were so similar. In the movie a young woman (Minnie Driver) in a hospital awaited a new heart. As Dan had been 3 weeks at UCLA Medical Center awaiting what would be his new liver. In the movie a beautiful, vibrant woman died in an accident to give up her heart. In Dan’s case it was a handsome, robust young man who would donate his liver to Dan. A death so that someone could live. How does it all work, Lord? It had to be a perfect match and Dan was assured that this was the one. In “Return to Me” Minnie Driver gets her new heart and it turns out to be a very successful operation.

I headed toward the check-out station with a full cart. I was anxious to get home and check my answer phone. Would there be any messages about Dan?

In a haze, I absentmindedly watched the checker as she scanned my purchases and I happened to notice the person behind me. She didn’t look like a skier. Her dark hair pulled up underneath a tri-cornered scarf. No make-up, but fresh appearing. To me she looked like Minnie Driver, the actress who had been consuming my thoughts since I was in the market. I turned and casually said to her, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Minnie Driver?” With a tiny grin that burst into a smile she said “Why, yes they do!”
It was at that moment that I knew it WAS Minnie Driver!!! I said “You ARE Minnie Driver, aren’t you?” She said “yes”. A million thoughts flooded through my brain. What kind of coincidence is this? I felt encouraged. Bubbling forth, I spilled the whole scenario to her about Dan and his transplant going on (at that very moment) at UCLA. “Oh”, she commented, “I did all my research for the part in “Return to Me” at UCLA. It’s a wonderful place. I’m sure he’ll do just fine.”

Yes, I was sure he would too. Guess I just needed someone else to say it out loud for me. “Would you sign an autograph for him?” I asked, knowing that Tammy, the checker, was anxious to keep her line moving and had no idea of what was transpiring before her eyes. “Sure” she said as I fumbled for a pen and anything she could write on. I retrieved a pen from the bottom of my purse and without looking further just put down my grocery receipt in front of her for her to sign. Here’s what she wrote:

TO DEAR DAN, WISHING YOU A SPEEDY RECOVERY
(drawing of a heart)
Minnie Driver
Xxx

I left the store with receipt in hand, thinking surely I could have come up with something better for her to sign on than a grocery receipt. But as I was looking at the endearing signature, I noticed how it had the exact date and time of this amazing encounter on it. When I would give this autograph to Dan he could see that all this had transpired exactly during his surgery on the exact date at the exact time.

At a time when my doubts were high and I became discouraged --- God just said “let your thoughts return to me.”