Hmmm....I don't "get it"!

I wonder why it is that the simplest things we do in a day may have a lasting impact we could never imagine?
It does indeed puzzle me.

For example. One year ago today I was working a "fun" job at Mall of America. I, along with the manager, had been planning an event, a "doll event" for the store. Oh, the store was "The Franklin Mint." I thought a "celebration" of Princess Diana's life would be a great idea, and was glad to hear Corporate liked it too!

It took weeks to plan the event. People would be flying in from not only Corporate, but managers from other stores throughout the U.S.. We decorated the store, designed the tables to allow the best view of not only the numerous Princess Diana dolls but other Franklin Mint dolls as well. I brought my laptop into the store and we went "live."

We dressed up...mercy, you would have thought we (the other three employees and myself) were going to a wedding, not to a collectibles store in a tourist mall. Cookies and punch in an elegant bowl were served throughout the day. People were oohing and aahing at the dolls.....we made "goal."

The manager, Dennis, and I were at the store at 7 a.m. to begin setting up. We barely made it for the store opening at 10 a.m., actually not making it but at least one of us was on the floor at all times.

The day was a very bittersweet day for me, and at times I found tears in my eyes. Not only was it the 6th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana (we chose to say "celebration of her life" instead), but it was the comments of the customers that brought me to tears. I doubt they knew it and it was not the first time it had happened in my years at the Franklin Mint, but on that day the tears were there, the memories for me not just of a store event but for a woman who was a significant part of my life, even though we never had met.

When children who must have only been barely 10 years old would walk up and say, "mommie look, it's Princess Diana." That alone choked me up, to know and hear of Diana's impact on those I'd not even have thought would know of her. But the beauty was hearing the adult continuing on about Diana. "she was a beautiful lady, a true Princess." I would hear things like this, lovely stories, being told from parent to child. and I would smile, knowing that I was witnessing Diana and her memory being passed down to the next generation. It never ceases to amaze me the worldwide love for Diana. Oh how I wish she could have known it, really known it.

The manager and I left the store that night after 7 p.m., totally exhausted. I was thinking how I would be so glad to rest and get back to my "full time" job the following Monday.

A year has passed since that event. Yet so much has happened. The Franklin Mint stores were all shut down in January (online only now). The fun of working in a store where I was first and foremost a collector is now yet another memory for me. But this particular memory...ah, I cannot tell you why it has made such an indelible mark in my psyche, and yet it has.

Maybe it is because I can never go back. At one time I thought the store would always be there. Indeed, I'd worked part time in 2000-2001. Same manager...great friend. Now all of this is gone, and I have not been back to the Mall.

But still the question remains, for me anyhow. Why is THIS event having such an important meaning for me? Why do I recall everything about that day?

For it wasn't some big world event, or holiday, or anything....

I sometimes think that things which may seem mundane, become, for whatever reason, those memories we cherish most.