I don’t often do the writing prompts but reading through some of your responses to: What’s the Best Thing You Ever Found and Kept? my thoughts automatically went to my beautiful bookcase.

Each week, on the night before garbage pickup, you can usually see many household items discarded alongside people’s trash. Things don’t stay on the curb for very long in our town. Especially good and useful things. One evening a few years ago I was out for a stroll with Miss Emma. We hadn’t gone more than a block when I saw a mountain of treasures sitting on the curb at a house in my neighborhood. Among them, a beautiful solid oak bookcase! I don’t often get new furniture, and though I really needed a home for my books and framed photos, a bookcase was pretty far down on my list of must buys. I could not believe my eyes when I saw this beauty sitting there for the taking! But I knew I would have to act fast.

Much to Miss Emma’s dismay, I turned around and took her home. Then I hurried back to the house where the bookcase was. It was much, much heavier than I thought it would be. I am no Wonder Woman, but by lifting one end at a time, I managed to maneuver it, inch by inch, to the end of my driveway. Thankfully my neighbor saw me struggling and came out. He didn’t even ask if I needed help, because that was pretty obvious, lol. I thought together, each on one end, we could get it safely into my car port until I could clear space in the living room for it. My neighbor lifted the entire weight and carried it down my long driveway to the car port

I don’t know why the people chose to discard this beautiful bookcase, but I’m thankful God sent me out for a walk at exactly the right time. It has been such a blessing to me. As have my wonderful neighbors. Sometimes the best things in life really are free!