The bags were heavy on my shoulders. I was glad to see that there was no one in line as I walked into the bank. Mary Ann waved me to her window and I plopped one bag on the counter.
“I’m a little embarrassed”, I confessed, as I pushed a big bag of rolled coins under the plexiglass shield, “I didn’t want to come on Monday morning, but is this a good time to deposit some coins?”
MaryAnn wasn’t put off by the coins in the least.
“This is a great way to save,” she said, “I wish more people would do this.” Then she told me she saw on Jon’s blog that we had emptied out our piggy bank so she wasn’t surprised to see me.
It took a while for Mary Ann to count up all the rolls, so we got to chat about Jon’s and my vacation to Hampton Beach NH in April. The last time we emptied the piggy bank was when we went to New Mexico which I think was in 2017. This time we’re staying closer to home, just a four-hour drive straight east.
When we get to the ocean we stop.
Mary Ann neatly folded the reusable plastic bags I separated the rolled coins into and gave them back to me. I told her how Jon made fun of the way I collect those bags, but she understood. We share a birthday, so as Aquarians, I think we have more in common than we know.
Somehow it came up that yesterday was a difficult day from world news to troubles in people’s personal lives, to just feeling down. I know I felt it as did the people I was around. Shay, who was at the window next to us said she was talking to her mother about being down yesterday. And Mary Ann cried when Maria, who also works at the bank, brought her a cup of coffee.
I knew just how she felt. I have days where someone just saying something kind to me has been enough to make me cry.
I went to the bank this morning, a bit embarrassed and not wanting to burden anyone with our bags full of coins. I left with our vacation money in the bank and a feeling of understanding and togetherness with the women who work there.
I’m not sure how it happened that we opened up to each other in this way. But I think we all felt a little better or at least comforted by knowing we weren’t alone in our feelings.
