“You too?!”

“Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one.’ 
… It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision – it is then that Friendship is born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude.”

C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves

On Caleb’s birthday in December, Esther and I went to the Walmart bakery and paid for someone’s birthday cake in his memory. I definitely didn’t know what to expect, as the lady behind the counter approached me. Asking if they made custom cakes, I told her I had a strange request.

I began by saying, “I lost my son in a car accident a little over a year ago…”

Her face changed and she blurted out, “I lost my son, too!”

And it was there in the bakery section of Walmart that I realized something. I may never know why God took my son home so soon, but one thing I can see. He is showing me glimpses of how He is redeeming the brokenness: every day, in multiple ways. The path of two strangers intersected on that clear December day. Both, with hurting hearts. Both, needing the mutual consolation that they didn’t even know they needed. Both, whose hearts healed just a little bit more in the shared experience of loss. There in the Walmart bakery aisle, two strangers walking different paths found each other and hugged. And for the briefest of moments, they realized that they shared a loss so profound, and were perhaps not as much strangers as they once thought.

With the help of her co-worker, she found a cake that was ordered for a little boy, just turning 5 years old. Handing her the card I wrote, we left, our hearts swelling as we thought of the family who would be picking up their cake within the hour. Praying that they would be blessed and think of our Caleb as they celebrate their own sweet boy.

And we were filled with awe as we thought of the divine appointment that God had set up that day for two grieving mama’s walking this broken road.

(Words on the card are not originally mine. I got them from another grieving mama. I didn’t feel anything needed to be changed except our own personal details, so I used her own beautiful words!)