Hey everyone :)
This is a true story. I felt I would share it because it means a lot to me and I really love it, i hope you do too :)
Around 2 years ago, there was this elderly woman who came into my dad's post office every day to get her mail. She was in her mid 70's and always gave my dad plates of chocolate-chip cookies for me and my brother. She did that for everyone. All the mail carriers, and even random strangers that came to pick up their mail; she gave them big plates of cookies as well. She was so sweet.
Every week, my dad was in the same post office, and every day he got a plate of cookies. This went on for months, to the point me and my little brother dubbed her 'The Cookie Lady'. Her real name was JoAnne, but we rarely called her that. I loved when my dad came home from work and would say to us, "The cookie lady made you guys some cookies!".
One day, my dad came home from work at that same post office. He didnt have any cookies with him. He told us the cookie lady had been hospitalized. We were so disappointed, but we didn't realize to what extent. A week later, she was gone.
My dad was invited to her funeral. He said he saw her husband and all her kids there. He still tells me how heartbroken he was seeing the looks on their faces.
So the cookies stopped coming. My dad saw the cookie lady's husband in the post office every now and then. My dad can only describe him as, 'a dude who became so lost after his wife died that he didn't know what to do'. He was just sad and lost all the time. He still did the same activities he used to; fishing, hunting, scrapbooking; but not with the same spark he once had. He had been married to the cookie lady for 43 years.
I still think about the Cookie Lady from time to time. It makes me cry without fail. I never got to meet her, but I will always remember the pure joy I felt when I heard my dad unlock the front door and announce that he had cookies from her. I was so happy; I would give anything to feel that again.
I'm crying while writing this. I miss her, not because of her cookies, but because she did something that made little me happy. She was a cool lady 
- Dino/Wilbur/Toby (he/they/xe)
