Love in a Brown Paper Bag

I had no idea that my daughter, Amy, would weep when I shared a tidbit from the book I was currently reading.  She was driving on the interstate climbing a mountain and passing semi’s when I thought I better change the subject because her eyes were full of tears.  She made me promise that I would write a post about this and tell everybody what I shared with her.

An Invisible Thread is a true story about Laura Schroff, a successful advertising executive, who meets eleven-year-old Maurice, a panhandler.  When he told her he was hungry she took him to McDonald's and a life-long friendship evolved.  The book is chock full of life’s lessons.  My favorite was the one I shared with Amy about the brown paper bag. 

Maurice, raised in a drug infested home was rarely fed and mostly hungry.  Laura wanted to provide lunch money so at least he could eat one meal a day at school.  He said he didn’t want money.  He wanted lunch in a brown paper bag.  He said the kids who had their lunches in bags were cared for by someone and he wanted to feel like one of them.  So every morning she prepared his lunch in a brown paper bag that he would pick up at the concierge’s desk at her condo.  The great lesson here is that her consistency shaped this young man’s life giving him hope and security.

When I look back to the past and think about the plenteous brown paper bagged lunches I sent off with my children to school, I contemplate the power of the ordinary.  I need to tell young moms that the ritual is so much more meaningful than we think at the time.

This book was a gift I received last week from my sister.  I devoured it and am so grateful for it.  It did for me what the author intended; I realize more than ever that friendship is a gift built on unconditional love and trust.  What is important in life is being thankful, taking nothing for granted!