April's A - Z Challenge: The Letter "U" is for Unabashed, Unaquainted and Unadorned:

Source: Vector Stock.com

This post was previously titled "The Woman With the Long Brown Hair".  But, I was stuck on what to post for the Letter "U", so I took out my vintage dictionary and read through the "U's", and the following words jumped out at me and reminded me of this post.

Unabashed:  not embarrassed by awe or shame.

Unacquainted: not acquainted.

Unadorned: without ornament or embellishment.

That describes the woman!  Now, here is my story ...

In the mid-1980's I had kind of a weird thing happen to me first thing one morning.  I was a single mom living in Eugene, and working for an insurance company. Our neighborhood was not quite "bad", but there was a lot of foot traffic, and the street was one block removed from one of the main thoroughfares.  We lived on 8th and Jackson, if you know where that is, about a block down from The Frontier Market (one of Eugene's great hippie stores).

I had gone shopping at the supermarket the night before, and bought groceries ... some staples.  Besides buying milk, hamburger and bread, I also bought things like green beans and cream of mushroom soup.  Those turned out to be wise choices, come to find out later.

I woke up that morning with a bit of free time on my hands before I had to get ready for work.  My two little girls were getting to sleep in a bit before daycare.  I had taken my bath the night before, so at the time I would have been normally been in the shower and getting ready for work, I heard a knock on the door. 

I thought, now who is that? I answered the door, and there was a tall woman with long hair standing on my porch. She didn't look scary, but she didn't look quite right either (in manner; physically she looked fine).  The woman told me that she was hungry, and could she please come in and have something to eat? 

Though surprised, my intuition was not really alarmed, so I let her in; not something I would usually ever do. It was like a God thing, if you know what I mean.

The lady headed into the kitchen, and I asked her what she would like to eat.  I offered up cereal, eggs, toast, etc. She said, no, what she really wanted was a can of green beans mixed in with a can of cream of mushroom soup, heated up.  I thought, that is weird ... if I wouldn't have bought those last night, I wouldn't even have them here to feed her what she wants.  (Those were in the days before I had a stocked pantry.)  I said okay, cooked up her requested meal, and asked her what she wanted to drink ... milk, juice, coffee?  She said no, what she really wanted was some Pepsi.  I had some of that too. So, that is what she drank. 

She was a good eater, and ate everything right up. As the girls were beginning to stir around and wake up, she said thank you and then she left.

After I got the girls ready and took them to daycare, I went to my job at the insurance company.  In the break room, I told everybody about what had happened that morning.  Most of the people scolded me, telling me that I was crazy, and that she could have killed all of us.  I knew that they were just worried about me, but wasn't sure that I deserved to be in so much trouble for just being nice!

Then, my friend Jan sat down next to me, and quietly said that I had done the right thing. Jan told me that it was okay to entertain the angels among us.  Thank you, Jan, I still remember your kindness, 25 years later.

I know that the lady wasn't really an angel.  I later saw her around town, and learned that she had been in a bike accident, and had suffered some sort of brain injury.  But it was still odd to me that I had just bought exactly what she wanted for breakfast ... green beans with cream of mushroom soup, heated up.  Also odd that I even let her in.  

The woman did her part too.  She wasn't embarrassed to ask for food from somebody she didn't know.  That is how I am tying this into the letter "U" today ... unabashed, unacquainted and unadorned (she was kind of a hippie chick, being from Eugene, ya know, and had on no make-up, or fancy clothing.)

Today is the seventeenth day of the A - Z Challenge, which is hosted by  Arlee Bird's: Tossing It Out.   Several of my blogging friends are participating, and this year there are over 1,200 participants. We post everyday, except for Sundays, and work our way through the alphabet. I am posting past photos that I have taken, and am linking them up to the posts where the photos originated from too. When you are all done here at Oregon Gifts,  please click here to visit the other bloggers who are participating in this challenge. 

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