Lessons #4 and #6

Last week I received a return gift voucher from Borders. At first I had no idea what I had returned or, for that matter, bought from Borders recently.

An hour or so later, I remembered that Lindsay had bought me my Christmas present from Borders. Lindsay had somehow found me the perfect set of stationary – each card in the shape of an organ and with a pithy phrase, such as the Heart Card that read, “You’ve Got the Beat.” Lindsay (as always) had picked just right and just for me, she knew well that I was a complete science nerd. Remembering that present, I knew that the gift card must have to do with Lindsay.

I spent almost an hour on the phone the next morning harassing a couple of poor customer service representatives at the Borders call center. “We can’t track the items returned based on the gift card number. Do you have the order number?” was the response that I heard about ten times over until a very nice and very tired woman agreed to look up what Lindsay’s last order had been. She finally had found it:

“On December 10th, 2010 Lindsay ordered:

Yoga for Your Brain
Spill Your Guts! Journal
I Heart Guts Stationary

To be delivered to Lauren Wessel at 284 Mott Street.”

And then I knew what Linds had meant for me to get. “Thank you so much” was all I could say in response to the phone representative. Of course, I immediately went back on Borders’ website and bought each of the items that I had not received (I also added The Art of Racing in the Rain for good measure).

I sat on my couch for quite awhile, feeling both amazingly touched for having Lindsay in my life and amazingly sad because she was gone. I so desperately wanted to do something even more thoughtful in return, which would probably have resulted in the gift-giving war to end all wars. But, of course, I knew that she was always the winner of this war – I hadn’t even been able to say thank you for the last gift.

Lindsay gave so much in the time that I knew her and I cannot even imagine the extent of the love, jokes, jewelry, Jezebel reads, dresses and happiness that she gave in total. As Emily so eloquently put it, Lindsay treated her friends like kings and queens. Even after she is no longer with us, she keeps giving.

So Lindsay, thank you for the perfect gift and thank you for shopping online – I would never have been able to track it down otherwise.