If someone asked you right now: What was your husband wearing upon leaving the house this morning? Would you remember?

          It's interesting how, when we are wrapped around the routine in our daily lives we forget to pay attention to the most important of things, such as, our most valuable treasures; those we love.

          The Estrada couple learned this lesson the hard way.

          One day, the husband went out for his daily walk. He got into his pickup truck and left.

          Around fifty minutes later, a police officer knocked on Herlinda Estrada's front door.

          The officer asked her what was her husband's name and what car was he driving that morning.

  He then informed that her husband had suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized.

  Extremely upset, she hurried over the hospital that was near her house.

  As soon as she presented herself at the front desk, she learned her arrival was too late. Her husband had died.

  In tears, and accompanied by the same officer who had been to her house, she was taken to identify the body.

  In the waiting room, she asked the officer to give the first few phone calls to the family and friends.

  A while later, people started arriving. And thirty minutes later, the least expected person to come arrives: Mr. Estrada himself.

  When she saw her husband, Herlinda threw herself and wrapped her arms around him shouting: You are alive! They told me you had died!

  Family members, friends, hospital staff had no idea what was happening.

  When all was calm, everything was explained.

  While Mr. Estrada was taking his daily walk, another man had suffered a heart attack.

  When the paramedics and police officers had arrived at the scene, they had not found any identification with the poor man.

  The only clue they had was a General Motor's keychain the police officer found and tried on the doors of several GM vehicles parked in the area.

  The keys, as we can see, opened the wrong vehicle - the one that belonged to Mr. Estrada, who was then identified by the documentations found inside the car.

  How had Herlinda identified the wrong body?

  She was not within herself. The unidentified body had duct-tape on the eyes and mouth. She was not even able to notice whether the man had a mustache or not.

  She looked at the feet, hands, color of shorts, tennis shoes. They seemed to belong to her husband. And this is how she identified the body.

  And how had Mr. Estrada arrived at the hospital?

  Very simple as well: once he arrived home from his walk, he received a phone call from his boss' wife, who, upon hearing his voice stated:

  My God! If you are there, then Herlinda must have been the one who has suffered the heart attack!

  How confusing, right?

  Therefore, while the couple returned home, in each other's embrace, the officer returned to the park to find more information.

  There, he found a woman who was searching for her husband: she was the correct widower.

  After that day, the Estrada couple changed many things in their lives, starting by paying closer attention to one another.

*   *   *

  At times, it takes something dramatic to happen, as we have just narrated, to take us away from the weariness, the indifference from which we face our days.  

  It takes a real jolt back to reality for us to start paying closer attention to those we love.

  Without these beings in our lives, everything that we have, no longer seems to matter: a house, a car, jewelry, trips... 

  Let us think about this and start looking at the ones that are the reason of our joy and happiness: our loved ones. 

  Let´s start today. Right now.

Spiritist Moment Team, based on the text from the book Pequenos Milagres,  by Yitta Halberstam and  Judith Leventhal, , published by Sextante.
April 04.2011.