MISSED BLESSINGS

Doing the right thing brings with it not only a sense of satisfaction, but blessings that just cannot have a price tag placed on them.

Let me back up a bit……

About 2 months ago I received a bill from the Oncology Center that had treated my Mom during her battle with cancer.  Mom had been placed in hospice care and since her insurance and Medicare were covering those costs, her last  chemo was not covered.  It seems that when insurance is paying for hospice care, which does not TREAT any disease or illness, it will NOT pay for chemo, which is considered a treatment to prolong your life.

My Mom was having chemo and radiation for pain management.  The cancer had spread up her spine and the tumor in her chest was growing and making her voice hoarse and breathing difficult.  We knew that it would not make a difference in her life expectancy.

Anyway, I was billed $4322.17 for that last chemo which I paid.  Never gave it another thought.

The following week I received a bill from the medical facility where we had placed my stepdad during my Mom's final 3 weeks of life.

Richard had been in poor health and bed ridden and because we wanted to have quality time with my Mom, we felt that we needed to move Richard from the home temporarily so that we could have those final weeks with Mom have to worry about caring for Richard.

We had paid for a full month, and Mom died at the end of Richard’s month.  However, since we decided to bring him back home 3 days after the funeral, we didn’t give the medical facility a 2 week notice, and therefore I was charged for a week that he wasn’t there and had to pay $1100. 

Again, I was okay with this.  Not much I could do about it.

Last month I was at the new Kroger shopping and when I got home I was looking over my receipt when I noticed that I had a $50 CREDIT for a “beer tap return.”  Well, I had not taken any beer tap back.  I don’t drink, and even if I did it would NOT be beer!!  I did however get some milk that was in a glass jar and I should have been charged a $2.00 deposit for that jar but I wasn’t...instead I was given a $50 credit in error.

So….I made 2 trips to the Kroger store that next week to see about paying the $52.00 that I actually owed.  None of the managers were available and the two clerks that I spoke with at the customer service desk looked at me like I was from Mars because I wanted to pay that money. I was told "just dont'worry about it." But I did worry about it.

I went back a third time and saw the store manager walking the store.  I was able to show him my receipt and tell him what had happened.  He was amazed that I would come back to pay that $52.00. He asked if he could keep my receipt to use as a training tool and said that it was hard to say how much money I had saved him.

And then he told me he was going to buy my groceries for me that day, and he did.  I had $142 worth of  groceries in my cart  that day!  I was so overwhelmed that I called my husband, crying, to tell him what happened.  I didn't deserve free groceries...I just wanted to do what was right.  What I was SUPPOSED to do.

When I got home I got the mail from the mail box and amid all the junk mail I found 2 envelopes .  One was from the oncology center that I had paid the $4322.17 to.  The check had been returned with a note saying “ There was a mistake, you do not owe this money.” I could not believe this!!!!

Then when I opened the second envelope, I once again found myself in tears as that envelope had a check from the medical care facility that my stepdad had been in with a note saying that I had been overcharged and they were refunding me the overpayment!  I had a check not for the $1100 I had paid but for $1600!  It seems that I had been charged a regualr rate rather than a respite care rate!!!!

Both of these checks were dated the day that I got my groceries and was undercharged $52.00.....Friday, January 13, 2012.

( I should have gone and bought a lottery ticket, huh?? LOL!!)

I share this for one reason……there have been many times when I got too much change back from a cashier, or had something in my grocery bags that I wasn’t charged for and I just thought that I was “lucky.”  I didn’t do what was right.  So how many blessings did I miss out on?  Too many!!!

For me, it was just enough to face that manager and let him know that I needed to pay that $52 back. It was enough to do what was right.  I can’t really put into words the emotions that flooded my being that afternoon.  It would have been all too easy to just forget about the mistake that was made on my receipt that day, but it would have jsut been another test that I failed.

I think that God puts lots of these "tests" in our paths and just sits back and waits to see what we are going to do.  I have failed Him so many times in the past, but what a wonderful feeling it was to know that this was once test that I passed 100%  How sad to think that I have missed out on many other blessings because I made the wrong choice or decided to be selfish rather than self-LESS.  I still wonder about those MISSED blessings!!!