AGONY AND ECSTASY

AN UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE STORY ABOUT HOW GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES

AGONY: MERCEDES KEY

We were getting ready to leave for San Francisco in late May when my wife discovered she had lost a key to her Mercedes. Luckily we had a second key. So this was not a show stopper. But she was very frustrated. We have searched everything – the entire house, the garage and the car itself. Several times. No key. We left for Europe in mid-June still without having found the mystery key.

When I returned in early August, I repeated the search. Nothing.

When my wife got back home a week later, we repeated the search. Nothing.

That’s when I contacted a local Mercedes dealer and found out that a spare key would cost $500!!! We hesitated a few days but eventually ordered the spare key from this greedy and arrogant manufacturer.

NORTH RIM OF GRAND CANYON

Fast-forwarding to Labor Day weekend 2023. We decided to spend this holiday, which marks the end of summer in America, at the Grand Canyon. But not at the usual spot where all tourists go – the South Rim – which is much more easily accessible from Phoenix (a 3.5hr-drive). We did that in 2019 and again in 2021.

This time, we went to the North Rim, which is a 6.5 hr-drive from Phoenix. It was worth the effort. The North Rim views are spectacular, the scenery breathtaking. We felt really one with nature there.

We arrived at the North Rim about an hour before sunset, snd checked in at the historic Grand Canyon Lodge. That’s the only accommodation available in this National Park operated by the federal government. Then we went for a short walk along the canyon rim, snapping pictures along the way.

A storm which had passed earlier in the afternoon left behind small white clouds which stuck onto beautiful red rocks like cotton balls. At one point, we caught a tiny glimpse of the Colorado the river that carved out this canyon over the last 60 million years. It flowed at the bottom of the canyon a mile deep below us.

The temperature was around 56F (13C) – a welcome relief from the horrendous heat (up to 118F) we had endured this past week in Scottsdale. The North Rim is at an elevation of over 8,000 feet (2,400m), which accounts for much lower temperatures.

We had dinner at 9:30pm at the Lodge – the last and the only seating available. We crashed dead tired just before 11pm.

SPARKLING MORNING

We awoke to a sparkling morning. Our cottage lay in the midst of a pine forest which emitted beautiful scent after the rain. The air was full of ozone. We went for another walk along a different part of the rim, filling our lungs with oxygen till they were ready to burst.

We also stopped at a gift shop and bought some trinkets, including new key chains of my wife and me. A jolly-looking ranger offered to take some pictures of us. We let him.

Once we got back to the cottage, we packed and loaded up the car. Then we went for a little final rock-and wood-hunting walk through the woods. I took this picture of my wife while she was doing it. Earlier she had found a “forest wood sculpture” which we loaded in our car and took home.

ECSTASY: NEW KEYCHAIN LEADS TO OLD LOST KEY

We left the North Rim a little after 11 full of excitement and wonderful memories. As we chatted in the car, Oli was fiddling with he new keychain trying to put her car key on it. It slipped out of her hand and fell between the seat and the console between us.

“Jesus,” I yelped, figuring she would have a heck of a time trying to get it out. The space is so narrow that I could not even put my hand down there.

“Maybe you’d have a better chance from the back seat,” I said.

Oli was a little upset that I used the term “Jesus.” She thought it was a cuss word in English instead of an exclamation mark, like “Gee,” or “Oh My God.”

The road through the National Park out of the North Rim is narrow and winding. You cannot just stop anywhere lest you want to block the traffic behind you.

“When you get a chance pull over. I con’t wait do put my new keychain on.

“Ok,” I said.

“You know what, we never did search this car for my Mercedes key, did we?”

I agreed. We did not.

“What if I did something like this with that key and it fell into the same gap between the seats?” she wondered.

“Makes sense,” I agreed. “It could have.”

“Bet I’ll find it there,” Oli said confidently.

Eventually, I pulled over and Oli got out to look for the keychain and the key.

“I got the key,” she declared triumphantly.

“You found the Mercedes key?”

“I did.”

“That’s fabulous. We’ll have to celebrate when we get back. I’ll take you out to a great dinner.”

“I don’t care for dinner, but yes, let’s celebrate.”

“That was God’s finger that led you to it,” I said. “The best part was that you felt BEFOREHAND that you would find it there. God is looking after you, my love, there is no doubt about it.”

Oli was beaming. All of the self-doubts she had because of the lost key had evaporated. We were both ecstatic.

As we drove on, we chatted about the guidance and protection we are receiving from the Almighty. Until now, Oli thought that was just me. After this, there was no doubt that God was looking after her, too.

As we left the National Park, there was a long line of incoming vehicles trying to get in from the other direction. When we entered here the night before, there was nobody. Not even the rangers in the guardhouse.

“Amazing,” I said. “This being a long weekend, obviously a lot of people have decided to come here. We were lucky to see the North Rim and get away just before the big crowds.”

AGONY: SHOCK OF NEW LOST ARTICLES

“Why isn’t the radio working?” my wife asked.

I hadn’t realized that it was not on. “I turned it off yesterday when that Park Ranger pulled us over” (for speeding; as it turned out, the nice officer just gave me a verbal warning).

I turned on the radio. A message flashed on the car screen “No phone detected.” I felt goose bumps all over my body. They are usually a prelude to cold sweat. Which is a reaction to something shockingly bad.

“Oh my God,” I said. “I lost my phone.” Then in the same breath I added, “and my wallet.”

It was not my wife’s turn to be shocked. “Are you sure?”

“Of course, I am sure. The car detects the phone automatically and electronically. It is not in the car. As for my wallet, I probably put both absent-mindedly on the roof of the car when I got in. We’ve got to go back.”

Two bikers rode their motorcycles in front of us at the designated speed – 45mph. “Bet they know how vigilant the rangers are. That’s why they are so slow,” I said.

Eventually, one of them pulled over and stopped. The other continued. Once that guy realized his buddy had stopped, he also pulled over.

Right after that, there was a widening in the road. I turned the car around and headed back to the entrance of the National Park. The long line of vehicles waiting to get in looked foreboding. Considering how important it was that we QUICKLY get back to where the car was parked, I muttered to myself, “oh, to hell with it.” And swung the car into the lane of the oncoming traffic. Luckily, no car came toward us. In which case three vehicles would have had a heck of time squeezing through on a narrow two-lane road.

Once we reached the entrance, a lady ranger looked shocked as I drove straight toward her the wrong way. I waved to her to calm down and rolled down the window. I explained that I had lost my wallet and the phone and had to get back to look for them. She was sympathetic and said to wait until she let a couple of cars leave the park before letting me go in through the exit way.

THE SEARCH

Once we got back to the parking where my car was, another car, another vehicle had already parked in the spot where mine was. I got out and looked around it, got on my hands and knees and looked under it. Nothing. I repeated that with the adjacent car. No sign of my wallet or phone.

Then Oli and I walked through the whole parking lot and along the exit road, trailing the path our car took when we left. Nothing.

“Who knows, if I left them on the roof as I think I did, they could have fallen off 10 miles from now.”

My wife was skeptical about that theory.

Still, leaving nothing to chance, I drove on to the Grand Canyon Lodge to ask is anyone had brought in a lost wallet and phone. Of course, no one had. The reception staff all looked pretty clueless. But I asked them to track down the drivers of the two cars who parked on our spot.

“We can’t do that,” a young fat Hispanic looking women said. The two others who stood around and listened to this conversation nodded their heads.

“Why not?” I protested. “When I registered, you had me fill out my car’s make and license plate number.”

“But we don’t know theirs.”

“But I do.” And I showed them the pictures of the two license plates which I took with my wife’s phone.

Two of them then pulled out a book and manually began to search pieces of paper. “This will take us a while,” one of them said.

“I can see that. Meanwhile, can I give you my personal details and my wife’s phone so you can call me if someone brings in my wallet and phone?”

“You sure can.”

And I did.

“You should also do that at the VIsitor’s Center,” one of them said. “Sometimes people bring things they find there.”

We drove over and I repeated the same song and dance with an older couple in ranger uniforms who were behind the information desk. They were VERY sympathetic and took down all the information I gave them.

“Is there a real chance that someone will turn in such items?” I asked the male ranger.

“You’d be surprised. If this were Chicago or New York, I’d say forget it. But just the other day someone turned in a lost wallet with $900 in cash in it.”

This warmed my heart a little.

“You should also go to the ranger station and talk to them. Sometimes people bring lost stuff to them.”

I thanked them and went to the ranger station. A nice young man wrote down all of my information and promised to call my wife’s number if someone brings in the lost articles.

When I got back to the car, I asked my wife if she had a pen. She did not. I always have a pen in my bag, but stupidly I did not bring the bag on this trip. “I’ll never go on any road trip again without that bag,” I declared.

I went back to the Visitor Center and borrowed a pen from the nice older couple who were manning it. Then I wrote down two messages on a sticky pad for the drivers of the two vehicles who parked over our spot. On the way out, I stuck the messages on the driver’s window.

There was nothing else we could do here. So we drove back out of the park and headed to our next destination – Flagstaff.

DRIVE TO FLAGSTAFF: GLIMMERS OF HOPE

I asked my wife not to talk about this anymore. “We’ve done everything we could. Now it’s in God’s hands whether or not I get my stuff back.”

Still, every once in a while, the conversation returned to lost articles. “Have you done this? Have you done that?”

The drive from the North Rim to Flagstaff, where we had booked a nice hotel, took us over 4 hours. About half way through, my wife’s phone rang. She handed it to me.

A female voice told me that a ranger had found a wallet. But she wasn’t sure if it was mine.

“What color is it? Mine is a beige Fossil soft leather wallet” (I had already written that down at the Visitor’s Center but this woman obviously hadn’t looked at my message).

She said she didn’t know because she did not see the wallet.

“You didn’t see the wallet? So where is it?”

“The ranger still has it.”

“Well, did he give you a name? My driver’s license is in there,” I said.

“Yes he did.”

I spelled my name for her.

“The first name is Robert, but the surname is very different from Djurdjevic.”

She would not tell me that “different” last name was. Why not? Who knows. But some warped sense of privacy in case that wallet was not mine.

“So when will you get the wallet?”

“I don’t know. But when the ranger brings it in, I will call you.”

She did not. So after another two hours of driving, I called her again.

“I talked to the ranger and he will bring the wallet around 5pm,” the woman said. “I will call you then.”

The nice young ranger I had talked to earlier, to whom I had given my info, was less than 100 yards away from the visitor center from where this woman was calling me.

“Can you tell me why is it taking so long for the ranger to bring the wallet to you?” I asked. “It’s a two-minute walk from you.”

“Well, the ranger said that someone had found and left the wallet at the park entrance.”

“At the park entrance?” I repeated flabbergasted. Because that’s 20 miles away.

“Yes, that’s what he said. He. will bring it when he finishes his shift.”

So it WAS 10 miles and more from the spot where I lost it.

At the time, it was around 4:20pm. I calculated that by 5,pm we would arrive at our Flagstaff hotel. Which we did.

BINGO! ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO

At 5:20pm, I called that woman again. This time, a male voice answered the phone. I explained what I was calling about, and that that woman had promised to call me around 5pm but did not.

He said she was his wife. “I remember you,” he continued. “You talked to both of us when you came in to the Visitor Center this morning.”

“And?” I asked.

“Well, the ranger still hasn’t brought it in. But I leave today at 5pm. It takes me about half an hour to close up. I will call you before I leave either way.

At 5:50pm the phone rang. “I’ve got your wallet in my hands.”

I thought I could jump for joy.

“The reason I know it is yours is that I am looking at your picture in your driver’s license,” he continued.

“But your wife said that the surname they gave her was “very different.”

“Well, let me see…” the man said. “It is (and he spelled it) S-L-O-B-O-D-A-N.”

“That’s my middle name,” I said. Obviously, the woman didn’t bother to look beyond so see my last name. Turkey!

A huge relief lifted from my shoulders. And so it did from my wife’s when I told her what just happened.

“There’s also $25 in cash,” he informed me.

I couldn’t recall how much I had, but I didn’t care. The main thing was that I get my driver’s license and my other important personal documents and credit cards back.

“And what about my phone?”

“They didn’t say anything about the phone.”

The rest of the conversation was about how this nice man – whose name is Paul – will mail my wallet to me on Tuesday.

“You should have it by Wednesday or Thursday,” he said.

When I hung up and told my wife what had happened, she was similarly elated.

ECSTASY: LAST GASP EFFORT

Dead tired, my wife and I went to bed around 9:30pm. We were watching a movie when I had a flash of an idea.

“Give me your phone,” I said to her.

“What are you going to do?”

“I am going to send a message to my own phone.”

And the message was, “If you have my phone, call or text me at 480-881-XXXX” (my wife’s phone number).

“That’s a really good idea,” Oli said.

Five minutes later, her phone rang. She handed it to me.

“I have your phone in my hand ,” a male voice said.

I thought I would jump through the ceiling.

“I am a hotel owner in a small town in Utah. Two of my guests, father and son, bikers from Canada, brought in your phone today.”

“My goodness! So what did they say happened?”

“They said they had pulled over and when a white car passed them, your phone landed practically in the lap of one of them. But because they are from Canada and don’t have a US cell phone number, they couldn’t call anyone until they got here in Utah. They are my regular hotel guests.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. If I had some tears left, tears of joy would have been running down my cheeks. Oli, in bed next to me, was also thrilled. I wondered if those were the same drivers who pulled over before I turned around and returned to the Park?

Then this nice man from Utah and I made arrangements for him to send the phone to me. This must be a very small town because they have neither Fedex nor UPS. So he will send it to me via the regular USPS mail on Tuesday.

My last gasp effort paid off. Just as my wife’s intuition about the Mercedes key bore fruit. Now we sit and wait for both my wallet and my phone to arrive.

GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES

Guess that’s the lesson we can take from this adventure. And one more thing from my native land, a proverb by Njegos, a Montenegrin ruler and poet from the 19th century:

“Joste niko casu meda ne popi da je casom zuci ne zagrci” (Nobody has drunk a cup of honey not to have it followed by a bit of bile).

And for me, one more thing: Never leave on a road trip without my trusty leather bag.

PS: How it Happened…

”Do onto others what you would have them do to yourself”

September 5, 2023

This is a note I received this morning from Brent in Utah:

“There is an interesting story that I’ll share with you about the gentleman who found your phone. Dan Esau and his son Peter were on a trip from Abbotsford Canada on their motorcycles. They unexpectedly stopped at our place because it was pouring rain. When they went to pay Dan realized he had lost his wallet. We retraced their course and found that it was at a gas station about an hour away. Rather than make that drive in the rain again, we sent them with our car and they were very grateful.. to get the wallet back and to get there in the comfort of a car. So it’s a wonderful story that 3 days later, Dan found your phone and happenstance brought them back to our hotel with it the night we contacted you. They were very concerned for you and your phone and they were relieved when we were able to tell them that we had made contact with you.
And so your phone was part of something bigger, something universally miraculous, which is the love and service of one person to another who is in need.
Peter gave me permission to share his email with you, if you would like to thank them yourself.”
(Email excised)
We are the Dragonfly at Dragonflylodging.com
And we were pleased to play a role in getting your phone back to you. 🙂

“YOU REAP WHAT YOU SEW” – that’s the proverb which flashed through my mind when I read this. Goodness begets goodness.

If there was any doubt that this entire experience was a divine intervention, there ought to be none now. I feel humbled and blessed. And in awe.

Epilogue

Thursday, Sep 7 – The first lost item arrived in the mail today – my wallet. I sent immediately an Amazon thank you-gift card to Paul at North Rim. With appropriate words of gratitude, of course.