I am feeling so, so badly for my husband today.
His best hat, a very expensive black fedora that he made one of his rare personal splurges to purchase only a year ago, went missing some time ago. He didn't realize it was missing until about a week ago and we have been wracking our brains, ever since he made the discovery, as to where he may have left it. For the past week we have been turning our suite and his office and our vehicle upside down trying to find it, with no success.
A couple of days ago we began tracking our travels around the city over the past month, because you never know what could trigger a memory, right? Sure enough, we finally came up with the last day we remember him having the hat in his possession: 3 weeks ago tomorrow. It was the day we were touring the new exchange employee from Britain around the city.
So, we made a list of where we went that day and this morning I began driving from place to place, hoping against hope I could find it. I NEARLY succeeded. Sigh.....
The last place we remembered being was at Leopold's Tavern downtown, but we couldn't remember if he had bothered to wear his fedora for the few steps between our parking space and the restaurant. Both of us had a vague memory of him setting it on the one empty chair around our table, but it could have been wishful thinking. I retraced our steps to the other venues while I was waiting for Leopold's to open this morning, getting there just as the sandwich board advertising was being put out on the street in front by a staff member.
When I asked the 4 staff in attendance, 2 of them remembered seeing the hat and I got my hopes up. They spent nearly 10 minutes searching every place they could think of, but couldn't come up with my husband's hat. I wrote down my name and phone number and they taped it up for tonight's manager, as he was the one on duty the day we were there and he is the one who told the others about the beautiful hat. The day manager felt very badly that no one could locate the hat today and offered me a free lunch as an apology for that, which I took him up on! It doesn't give my husband any comfort or replace his hat, but I figured I wasn't going to say no if they were offering any kind of apology for not being able to find such an expensive hat. Since it was our own fault for leaving it there....and I take equal blame to my husband, because I always make sure I check when we leave public places that he has everything he went in with and I was too distracted and tired myself that day.....it was kind of the manager to do anything at all for me. My taco salad was as delicious as ever, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth because I am pretty certain the hat will never be found. The free lunch offer left me thinking that the day manager agrees with me for whatever reason. Perhaps someone else on staff decided that after 3 weeks no one was coming for it and took it home, or perhaps it got discarded in the garbage or some other patron noticed sitting on a counter and swiped it. Unless tonight's manager knows something the rest of today's staff doesn't and is able to locate it and return it, I think my husband's beautiful hat is long gone.
I want to cry just thinking about it because he was SO proud of himself for finally spending a few dollars on something he really liked as soon as he put it on his head. He doesn't buy himself anything at all without my urging. He is so selfless in so many ways and yet it is HIS fancy fedora that is missing. While I am grateful that we finally tracked down the place where we left it, I feel nauseous that we may have come so close to getting it back and then we don't.
Such fuss about a hat, but for my husband it was a big deal. He was always smiling when he wore it and very proud of looking good in it. I love my husband. I don't want him to feel sad. I don't want him to have lost it due to both our poor memories due to exhaustion and distracted thoughts.
Well, all I can do is pray and ask God if it could please be restored to my husband and if the answer is NO, then just accept it and move on. You know how it is when your spouse or significant other is hurting about something, even something that to other people would seem insignificant, but YOU know why it matters so much and it hurts you too.
Okay Lord, is it possible we could get that hat back? Is there something else we need to learn on top of taking better care of our memories so we keep better track of our stuff? I am trying to be open to any and all possibilities, as long as my husband doesn't have to feel any worse than he already does about this.
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