I had a date to walk at Green Timbers Park with my sister on Tuesday, June 11. We zigged through the wide trails, then zagged through the narrower trails, deeper into the forest.
We walked north and south, east and west.
Nature is like a calming tonic for me as some major events are getting closer. I’m preparing for my marriage, am selling my home, have become a grandmother, and my eldest daughter has recently returned from Europe.
We were walking on the Hemlock trail headed north. We were deep into Green Timbers Urban Forest and I had my car keys dangling from the key ring in my right hand.
I’m a fidgeter so I was doing what comes naturally to me. I was fidgeting with the key ring. Around us was the forest, with the sounds of wind rustling tree branches, of birds, of distant vehicle engines and of us talking.
At one point I mentioned to Mary that I wondered if I had just dropped my keys as I had just heard an odd sound. We continued walking. I looked down at my hand and did a mental inventory.
I determined that I had all my keys, thus we continued talking and walking for a long while, then headed to our cars in the parking lot.
As we were mere feet away from the parking lot, I looked down again at the keys in my right hand, and looking for my car key, I realized it wasn’t there.
I silently thought this is not at all like looking for a needle in a haystack. A key is much bigger than a needle. But then I realized that Green Timbers Urban Forest is much larger than a haystack.
Trying not to panic, we started re-tracing our steps.
I was confused, and we started second-guessing ourselves. I called my daughter, who was visiting her sister in Surrey that day, to give her the heads-up that I may need a ride home to Abbotsford if I couldn’t find my car key.
We set out on the Hemlock trail headed north.
We had just come on a clearing of sorts, and it looked familiar. Gazing around, I saw an arrow drawn into the packed bark mulch and I thought to myself that someone had fun with a stick and decided to draw arrows as if pointing to hidden treasure.
I walked a couple more steps and I saw a tree in the middle of the trail. Looking up the trunk of the tree, about a foot from the ground, I saw, hanging on a twig, on a little loop from a key chain, the key to my Nissan Sentra.
I absolutely shook with relief!
It dawned on me, and I realized what the arrow was for.
I looked at the arrow pointing north, then I saw on the north side of the tree another arrow drawn in the bark mulch, pointing south.
I can’t tell you how relieved I was. And how utterly thankful I felt.
So to the anonymous Good Samaritan, the MacGyver of Green Timbers, or the most excellent boy Scout ever, I thank you with all my heart.
I am amazed that someone happened upon my lost key.
That they found it is amazing. And that they had the wherewithal, the empathy, and the absolute kindness to not only put it where it could be seen, but to take such care to point arrows to where this “treasure” was located – well it brings tears to my eyes.
Thank you so very much.
Liisa Trowell, Abbotsford
