A young man finds an 80-year-old Veteran’s wallet on the side of the road and discovers something money could never buy.
Art by Pete Whitehead
Listen Free: | Apple Podcasts | Pandora | Stitcher | Spotify |
Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Story Courtesy of: Alex Collier
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:03.200] - Aaron Intro
Hey, everybody, happy Thanksgiving, Aaron, here. This is a weird one this holiday and maybe, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas, too. Nothing like most of us have faced. I'm sure most of you are gathering in a smaller capacity this year, small, intimate family get togethers, not used to seeing this few people. Maybe you're missing somebody. Maybe you're doing a zoom call. I know we're doing some call with some family later on. And we're going to get through it and we're going to figure out a way to persevere, because no matter how we can stay connected, we're going to stay connected with each other. So this holiday, this Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a story that my brother shared with me and it happened to him. So it's his story. And when he shared the story with me, I was just blown away by it. And he gave me permission to share it on his behalf. And I thought it was a perfect story for Thanksgiving. So, whether you're waiting for food, waiting on Turkey or you just got done eating and you just kind of reclining back and relaxing, I'm here with you and I hope you enjoy this Thanksgiving 7 Minute Story titled: The Wallet. Enjoy.
[00:01:25.070] - Aaron Story
My brother Alex is really enjoying this run that he was on. It was a beautiful Sunday. Fall. It was just a couple of months ago. Perfect weather for it. It's the weekend. And he's been running for years. He loves doing it, obviously, for his health, but also he does it to clear his head. And he told me that this day especially was a day that he really wanted to clear his head. It was a lot of things going on. And it's not uncommon in the sense that we've been going through it too. It was a combination of the pandemic and then the political season was in full swing. And the negative energy that goes with that and then all the civil unrest and everything was just on his mind, weighing heavily on him. And he was out here, you know, running on this Sunday just to put things into perspective and clear his head.
[00:02:15.140]
And things were going smoothly, as usual. And he was on his usual route and in the little inlet of his little neighborhood. And then when he went out to the main drag, that's when things got a little unusual...He's running down the sidewalk and as he's about to make a familiar turn, he looks down and he finds a one dollar bill. And he's like "yes, my lucky day. This is great." So he picks up the one dollar bill, jogs just a few feet and then finds a five dollar bill. And he's like "OKAY..", he picks that up and then he jogs a couple more feet and then finds a twenty dollar bill and then picked that up. And then next to the twenty dollar bill can only be described as wreckage, like from a wallet, like a wallet that's been struck and has been and fallen in battle. And this wallet, the way he told me, this wallet was like George Costanza wallet. It was huge and it had half the stuff missing. Who's ever wallet this was, their entire life had to be in this wallet. And so he's kind of freaking out. He's trying to gather up all the money and there's pictures everywhere and there's IDs and there's credit cards and there's all the stuff. And much of it is not just on the sidewalk, but it's, through, by the wind has blown into the ditch next to this really busy road. So he's got to be mindful of traffic. And now he's digging this ditch and he gets all of the stuff together and his hands brings it up to the sidewalk and he starts slowly going through things to unpack this mystery.
[00:03:48.350]
So he puts the money back and the slot where it's supposed to go. I don't want you call that thing. It's like the little slot. Right. But he puts the money, tucks it in there, all the money he found. And then he's looking through just some of the ID and he sees the ID is from a gentleman named Norm. And Norm appears to be early 80s. So he's an older gentleman and he's looking at some of these pictures.
[00:04:15.860]
Right? So Norm's got pictures of him back from the war and then him with his family and all this stuff. So he's trying to put it back in the slots and then he finds, which is the best thing is a post-it note that has a list of all of the phone contacts for Norm. So it'll say, you know, my son and it has Norm's son cell phone. Then it said, my granddaughter. And then it says my cell. So this is Norm Cell on a Post-it note in his wallet. So my brother told me, he's like, "I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should just, like, call someone." He felt weird gathering it and even putting in his pocket. He felt like paranoid, but he told me his instinct was to just get the wallet and then go back to his house and then call this cell phone number and see what happens....
[00:05:07.970]
So, Alex runs home, as soon as he gets inside, he calls that cell phone number my cell. Norm's cell. Waits a couple of rings. Then he hears a voice. "Hello?" And my brother says, "yeah this Norm." And the voice goes, "Yeah, this is Norm. Who is this?" And my brother says, "This is Alex. Norm, I know this is kind of weird. I don't want to freak you out, but I have your wallet. But I found it on the side of the road. I tried to gather everything that fell out that I could. And I just wanted to call because I found your cell phone number and I want to get this to you." And Norm, you can hear, is just stunned because he's been through hell. You can tell in his voice he's like, "Oh, my God, Alex. Thank God. I've been, I can't tell you after church, I've been driving around different streets, different counties. I've been in ditches. I just been pulling my hair out. I'm so glad that you found this, Alex. Keep the money. Just keep the money in the wallet." And my brother says, "No, Norm, I'm not keeping this money. This is your money. This is no problem. How can I get this to you?" And Norm says "Well we'll figure it out when I get there. Just give me your address and I'll come to you."
[00:06:14.570]
So my brother tells him his address, the hang up the phone. My brother waits about fifteen or twenty minutes and he sees a car pass his house. More times than it should, and he figures that's probably Norm, looking for the house and he goes out to the front door and he walks up to the driveway and he makes eye contact with Norm, who pulls the car around and parks, gets out.
[00:06:36.530]
And when he gets out of the car, you could tell he's an elegant man, nicely dressed and standing up straight, very handsome older gentleman. And he walks up to my brother. And I know we're in the middle of this pandemic thing, but this is a moment that he really couldn't pass up because Norm just extended his hand and wanted to shake my brother's hand. My brother just kind of shook his hand and said, "hey, hey, I'm glad I could get this to you."
[00:07:02.240]
And he hands over the wallet and Norm looks at the wallet and goes, "I just can't tell you how much I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there something I can do for you? Can I get you a gift? I, I feel like I need to get you something. This was just so decent." And my brother said, "Norm, I mean, this is something you would probably do for somebody else. So I'm just doing the same." And they both look at each other and exchange goodbyes, and my brother went back into the house and just went on with his day.
[00:07:32.850]
So about an hour goes by and my brother hears another knock on the front door. And he opens the door and when he gets there, there's nobody there, he sees the tail end of a familiar car drive off and he looks down and he sees this letter.
[00:07:49.860]
Sorry, this is emotional for me.
[00:07:53.440]
And my brother picks up the ladder and it's from Norm and I have the letter here that he let me borrow. I'm going to read you what Norm wrote him. It says:
[00:08:05.200]
Dear Alex, every now and then when the craziness going on in our country gets to me. I shall remember a kind, honorable and honest man named Alex. You saved this 80 year old Veteran from a mountain of trouble and expense, had I not found my wallet. I pray for many blessings for you and your family. Sincerely, Norm, P.S., I know you said you didn't want anything in return, but "one good turn deserves another." God bless you.
[00:08:46.750]
And there was a bunch of gift cards. My brother called Norm back. They stay in touch regularly and it sounds like after the pandemic, they're going to go get some coffee and talk. Happy Thanksgiving.
