“Grateful Monday”: Life Keeps on Giving me Another Reason to Love Life

Today something great happened.

This Monday is special and the week has started with a kind & loving news, as if someone sent me a hug from the universe.

Just a few days ago, I lost my card holder last Thursday and I just realized it on Friday afternoon. I spent the weekend checking all possibilities where I could have dropped it. I asked the restaurant where I had lunch on Thursday if they found a card holder, and I even visited them again to be sure. It wasn’t there.

I sent email to my yoga place with photos of my ID card which was inside and also an image of what the card holder looks like. I even called them to be sure. It wasn’t there.

So I started all the necessary paperworks to do. I went to the local police office to testify that I lost my ID & cards to get the report. I called my Caisse d’Epargne Bank to cancel my card. I opened my TransferWise apps to freeze my borderless banking card and order a new one - this part is easy & quick, two thumbs up! Then I opened my Ameli apps to report that my health insurance card was lost and I ordered a new one - another easy & quick process.

Then, here come the sacrifice of being an expat in French. I came to the Prefecture to report that I lost my carte de residence and ordered a new one. Well, as I live in Nanterre, a suburb just outside Paris, I had to wait in line outside Nanterre Perfecture building, this morning from 6.30 am. I waited in line in the cold - it was 6 degrees Celcius. Then at 9.30 am I got the ticket to enter the building. The tickets one can distribute per day is limited hence the lines from early in the morning.

Inside, I waited standing in line again for the second time until I reached the information locket around 10:30 am and then got the instruction of where to go. Then I finally sat down while waited for my turn until they call my ticket number. At 11 am, I was out the building with a paper which says that I am waiting for a new card and with this paper, I can travel.

When I was with the lady at the Perfecture and was providing all documents she asked, there was a phone call that I couldn’t answer. Turned out, it was a call from my office saying that someone has found my wallet and left me with a phone number. I called back and this person confirmed that my card holder is safe with all cards inside. It was on the ground by a bus stop on the street, just few hundreds meter away from my office until this Good Samaritain found it and tried to goggle me. We met at my office and I got all my cards & wallet back at 1 pm.

My husband and I will kindly return favor by inviting our Good Samaritain and partner for dinner at Bistro Volnay Paris - it’s where my husband works as sommelier. Such a kindness from a stranger, something that warms my heart. It truly touched me and my colleagues too! Thank you! We are so grateful 🙏🏽

Love from us x
Cartoon taken from a free copyright source