Five-Star Disability

A feel-good story that ought to make you scratch your head or, at the least, ponder the sheer cosmic abyss of Lost Properties.

So you see these awesome gloves above? My son’s favourite! We have/had three such pairs, orange, yellow and blue. The blues have vanished.

These gloves are also a favourite of mine, the yellows that is; they fit nicely, good grip, and bright so I can signal cars to stop or the like.

And so, in mid November, when it was starting to chill, I was lucky enough to grab these orange gloves. I was driving CJ-3 (my power chair) to a meeting.

I am still learning the minuscular habits of power chair users; laps are not flat!

Main Street station is accessible, however, the gap between platform and skytrain is not level, leading to a more pronounced gap, hence a jarring motion when I leave the train. This I am used to now.

The gloves, however, were not, and decided to jump!

When I got outside the station, I looked; actually felt, and couldn’t find the gloves!

Oh crap! My kid is gonna be upset! I lost his favourite gloves!

I arrived home, told my kid, breaking the news mournfully, saying “I’ll get you a new pair…” and all that. Need to order online. Alas, shortly afterwards, we forgot about them.

There was really no need for gloves, toques or scarves in our house, other than for fashion or for me, power chair user on long drives. Yes, we had snow falling, but cloth gloves and snow do not mix. So, life goes on.

Christmas came, New Years came, two birthdays came and went. And the Winter Olympics started.

I was on one of those long drives, sans gloves, it was nippy, chilly. I cruised to the local Value Village (my regular go-to VV) on a whim, thinking of securing some fancy, driving gloves; leather would be nice. Maybe I could find a pair of Lamborghini gloves! That would be an incredible find!

I spot band of red in the middle of lineup of gloves, dolefully hanging around. I also spotted an orange band, but didn’t think anything about that.

The lineup of hanging gloves are out of reach for me, being two feet shorter than I used to be, so I have to get out of the chair to see what exactly this red colour is.

And I am rewarded with vintage 2010 Vancouver Olympic mittens! At $4, a perfect find! I lost my original pair of these iconic mitts.

I scan the rest of the hanging gloves, I take the orange gloves and look more closely at them… could it be… I spy the pulled thread… my kid did that… I am shocked… I can’t believe the orange gloves I lost in mid November are in, soon to be on, my hands again!

How can that be! How could a pair of gloves lost on a busy platform in metro Vancouver end up in the Lost Properties and then, 5 months later, end up at the Value Village I frequent, and bought by me?

Of all the thousands of possibilities, the Gloves came back to my son! Cosmic energies work in mysterious ways!

Now, I really need to find some very cool and wearable, expensive perhaps, driving gloves for myself! I love driving! Wish me luck!

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