The Gift That Keeps Giving
Mysterious Ways|December/January 2018

These three shoppers got a lot more than they bargained for…

The Gift That Keeps Giving

Roberta Messner 

HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA

I was shopping downtown when I saw a sign in the window of one of my favorite stores: “Last Chance! 75% Off!” Pass up a deal like that? Not me! I ducked into the shop and made a beeline for the sale section. On a table near the back, I found the sweetest little carousel charm. I didn’t have a charm bracelet. I wasn’t particularly drawn to carousels. But I knew someone who was: Alexandra, a writer who lived in Connecticut.

Alexandra and I weren’t especially close, but she’d written about her love of carousels. I headed for the register and shipped it off to Alexandra. I didn’t hear back from her until several months later, when a thank-you note arrived in the mail. “Roberta, you have no idea the joy this carousel brought to my family,” Alexandra wrote. Her ninety-something husband had been quite ill when she received my gift. She’d been so busy tending to him that she’d put the package aside and forgotten all about it. After her husband passed away, she found it again. “Before my husband died, he promised a sign from heaven,” Alexandra wrote. “Can you guess what it was?”

Alexandra Chipkin 

This story is from the December/January 2018 edition of Mysterious Ways.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the December/January 2018 edition of Mysterious Ways.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM MYSTERIOUS WAYSView All
Ivy Dishes
Mysterious Ways

Ivy Dishes

“My mom found a house for us to look at,” said my fiancé, Jon. “It’s in Richfield, not far from where I grew up.”

time-read
4 mins  |
February/March 2021
The Duet
Mysterious Ways

The Duet

“Can you perform a hymn for us next week?” my pastor asked me after Sunday service.

time-read
2 mins  |
February/March 2021
The Girl in the Dream
Mysterious Ways

The Girl in the Dream

Was this a church? The high, vaulted ceilings made it seem like one—almost but not exactly.

time-read
5 mins  |
February/March 2021
News From Around Our Wonderful World
Mysterious Ways

News From Around Our Wonderful World

Liverpool, England Joanne Carr is hailing her son, Dougie McInerney, as her guardian angel.

time-read
2 mins  |
February/March 2021
A Light in the Blizzard
Mysterious Ways

A Light in the Blizzard

I stepped on the gas and shifted into drive, then reverse, then back into drive again.

time-read
4 mins  |
February/March 2021
Straight From the Fish's Mouth
Mysterious Ways

Straight From the Fish's Mouth

Florence, Italy. I’d been there before on one of those scruffy five-dollar-a-day youth-hostel jaunts through Europe, but now, just graduated from college, I was wondering what to do with my life.

time-read
5 mins  |
February/March 2021
Divine Callings
Mysterious Ways

Divine Callings

Have you ever felt called to a purpose?

time-read
8 mins  |
February/March 2021
Dad's Voice
Mysterious Ways

Dad's Voice

As I reached to turn off the lamp on my bedside table, my eyes fell on the card my brother Isaac had given each of us siblings on what would have been Dad’s sixty-eighth birthday.

time-read
3 mins  |
February/March 2021
Ben's Answer
Mysterious Ways

Ben's Answer

It was midafternoon, and I was already curled up on the couch in the living room with no plans to move.

time-read
3 mins  |
February/March 2021
A Doll's Hat
Mysterious Ways

A Doll's Hat

My fears around the surgery built all day.... God, please let me be as strong as my young patients are.

time-read
3 mins  |
February/March 2021