A little bit of "Heavens" brightened our day

It had been a rough week. My daughter wasn't feeling well and we had seen two doctors that day. The doctors wanted my 11-year-old daughter to have some blood work done, so we picked up my younger daughter from school and went up to the local lab to have her blood drawn.

As we entered the facility, a nice young lady who opened the door for us and said, "Hello," greeted us.  I had been to this lab before and never greeted like this.

At this particular facility, especially lately, the wait can be long, usually an hour if you don't have an appointment. On this particular day, even those with appointments had waited more than an hour. We weren't too thrilled to have to sit and wait, but we had to because the doctors needed the blood work done.

The waiting area of a lab isn't the place you usually meet people, but this day was different. Our greeter came up and started talking to me and my two girls. We knew she wasn't hired to greet people, she just wanted to do it out of the kindness of her heart. As people came in, she would rush over and open the door for them. After opening the door, she would come back and talk to us. She told us her name and we told her our names. She had a beautiful name, but what really stood out to me and my daughters was her middle name. It was "Heavens." You don't hear that every day.

She told us she was 27 years old.  She had quite a few brothers and sisters she named off to us. She also told us her parents were sitting right across from us waiting to do labs. She mentioned she was the manager at the local restaurant Harold Seltzer's. She was the "silverware manager." She wrapped the silverware once a week. She also told us she worked for the Tampa Bay Rays. Her job was to clean the countertops and fill  the ketchup and mustard at the concession stands.

As she spoke, you could hear in her voice  she took such pride in what she did. She mentioned had gotten married a few years ago. She loved her parents and told us they were her best friends. Toward the end of our conversation she told us "I have down Syndrome."

We knew she had Down Syndrome, but that didn't make a difference in who she was. She was such a delight and made our hour plus long wait seem  not so bad. Actually, we felt like we had been given a glimpse of heaven and were blessed that afternoon because she was such a lovely person.

After I thought about our day at the lab, I couldn't get out of my mind how wonderful this woman with down syndrome was and how she shined even with obstacles in her life. She was able to work, get married and was so content with what she had. I also thought about her parents and family and how they had given her such confidence and support. I was also impressed with the two companies, Harold Seltzer's and the Tampa Bay Rays, who employed her.

"Heavens" was just what we needed to brighten our day. If only we could all see life through her eyes.