My Name in Lights–Hot Pink Neon– To be Exact Part 2

The Best is Yet to Come

The next morning I had a meeting.  I was still upset over what had happened and decided to tell my group the story.  Why?  I do not know.  Maybe I thought they would tell me I was still a good mom or put their arm around me, which I needed.   As I began to tell the group this story, one of the ladies said, “THAT WAS YOU??!!”

“You heard this story already?!” I asked in unbelief.  I hadn’t told anyone, so I couldn’t figure out how anyone knew anything.

“Yes, I heard this story,” she replied.  “My husband was in Hurst’s last night and everyone was talking about the lady that left her baby there!  They said it was Lisa Frei.”

Now you need to understand that there are two Lisa Freis in my town.  They are both my cousins and beautiful wonderful women, but in my quick thinking mind, I said, “That’s who it was!!  Just remember that…..Lisa Frei.”  Of course, I was being funny, but at least there were TWO of them to share the blame.

Back to Hurst’s– Yes, I’m Crazy!

That afternoon, I went back to Hurst’s to thank the ladies for helping me with my baby, to apologize, beg forgiveness, and, as a side note, to get some fabric for curtains.  This time my oldest was in school, so I had the baby, and my two girls who were 2 and 3, almost 4.  We went into the store and up the stairs to the fabric department when my 2 year old needed to go to the bathroom.  The 3 year old told me she would take her, that she had to go, too. I was a little concerned because the bathroom was down the four stairs and to the right at the end of the aisle.  Being small, I wasn’t sure if they could remember how to get there, but the oldest assured me she could find it, having been there before.  I told them that I would finish figuring out the amount of fabric for them to cut, then would be right down.  So off they went.  I began to calculate numbers in my head when not only I, but the entire store, heard the most blood-curdling screams.  Thinking my daughter’s had run into a cockroach or something at the bottom of the stairs, I asked the clerks if it would be okay for me to leave my baby there, promising to come right back and get him, so I could see what happened with the girls.

“Of course,” they replied.   They were SO nice!

I met my daughters along with two other store employees at the bottom of the stairs, just a few feet from where I had been, but just out of view of the material counter.  There was some remodeling going on in the store.  At the bottom of the stairs, directly to the right, they were re-tiling the floor.  They had it roped off with yellow caution tape and had glued up the floor waiting for it to dry a little so they could lay the tile.  Obviously, my girls couldn’t read, so they took the shortcut under the tape.

The Shortcut– It’s a little Sticky!

Now my girls were in these cute little “twinsie” sundresses and their Mickey Mouse house shoes.  Because Mickey was so fuzzy, he got stuck in the glue quickly.  So they did what anyone would do….Sit down and take the shoes off.  So here they were—shoes stuck to the glue, underwear stuck to their bottoms, dresses stuck to their underwear and they were screaming like banshees.   I’m thinking the glue is burning them because they were screaming so much.  The two workers helped me gather them and their shoes up and we took them up to the fabric counter where they gave me some scrap fabric to see if I could wipe them off in case the glue was burning them.  We wiped them up as best we could.  The ladies grabbed a plastic bag and threw their shoes in it.

Now I was in another predicament.  Its mid-July, over 100 degrees outside in our Southern Utah heat.  The girls have no shoes, so they can’t walk themselves to the car.  I have a purse, a baby in a car seat and two girls to try and get to the car.  Running in bare feet was not an option—way too hot.  So I did what any reasonable woman would do— I called my hubby to come and help me out of there.

MP to the Rescue?

“Hello, MP?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m at Hurst’s and I have a little problem……”

“You’re at Hurst’s??!!”

“….well, yes.  The girls got stuck in some glue and I was wondering if you were coming this way and could help me out?……”

“I can’t believe you went in that store again!!  YOU got yourself into this mess, YOU get yourself out!!! And don’t you EVER go shopping again without getting a babysitter!!”  CLICK!

Well, it was obvious he wasn’t going to show his face in there ever again.  I didn’t want the ladies to hear that conversation either.  I was pretty embarrassed.  But now I needed to get out of there and QUICK!  But how?  I was ready to burst into tears.

To this day, I’m not sure how I made it out.  I’m pretty sure one of the employees helped me carry the kids to the car.  What I do remember was driving to MP’s shop, stripping all the glued-up clothes off the girls and putting them in the plastic bag with the house shoes, and chucking the whole thing in the dumpster, and crying and thinking all the way home, “I am the worst mother ever and I’m never going shopping again!”

That night, I went to a wedding shower with my mom.  I was telling her what happened and by now was giggling about it, when one of the ladies in front of us, who had been listening in, turned around and said, “THAT WAS YOU?”

For gosh sakes……“How did YOU hear about this?”  I asked, perplexed at how the story had again traveled out of my circle.

“Well, I was at the Nutrition store last night (around the corner from Hurst’s) and people came in there from Hurst’s talking about the lady who left her baby at the store.”

Talk about embarrassing.  But at least the people in the Nutrition store didn’t know who it was.

Lessons Learned

If there is a lesson to be learned, it would be this:

1.  Always count your children, even if you think only irresponsible parents could forget one of their own offspring.

2.  Superman (aka: your husband) does not always show up in times of distress like he does for Lois Lane.

3.  When your husband says, “I’m going home and taking the kids,” make sure he takes ALL of them or clarifies which ones he is taking.

4.  Be prepared to tell these stories at ward parties or in big groups of people who need a good laugh.  (As if you were a stand-up comedian or some freak circus act!)

5.  People don’t forget.  It’s been 21 years since this occurrence and people still ask me, “Aren’t you the one who left your kid?”

“I think it was Lisa Frei,” I respond.  Even though across my forehead a bright neon sign flashes in hot pink, “YES!  IT WAS ME!  I LEFT MY KID!  We are getting psychological help!”

I’ve been branded for life in hot pink neon.

Here’s a picture of them just a month or two before this event.  They are with their great-great Grandpa taking.  We were taking 5th generation photos that day.  Just want you to get a feel for how cute and little they were at this time…..