‘I Got Him Out of a Jam’

A “Feel Good” Story

By Judi Curry

I am going to begin this little story by stating that there is nothing deep about this.

Some of you will think it is a complete waste of time to read; a complete waste of time to even publish it.  So let me start out by saying that you are correct.  If you are looking for something with deep meaning, something that you will learn from, something that you will want to repeat to others, STOP READING now – because this is none of those things.

Rather, this is about a sweet thing that happened this week.

Many of you know that I am a “jammer.”  With 14 fruit trees, I make jam year round and some I sell, some I give away, some I even donate to homeless groups.  Many of you know that I was diagnosed with COVID in January, and that my daughters took turns staying at the house helping me survive. (They did a great job of that!)

One of my daughters lives in Orange County, and works at a Kaiser Clinic in a town called Downey.  She is in a management position and asked me, when she was getting ready to go back to her home, if she could bring some jam to the members of her team.  I told her to go out to the shed and take what she wanted.  Let’s fast-forward.

One morning at 2:32am, I received a text message from a telephone number I was not familiar with.  The prefix was obviously a Los Angeles number, and there was no name with it.  The person texting me asked me if I had any more Mango jam.  At 2:32 in the morning.

I was awake since I am an insomniac and COVID only added to my inability to sleep.  I wrote back and said that I was all out; that there were new buds on the tree but I probably wouldn’t have any more until October or November of 2021.  The person texted me back and said that he (I later found out his name) wanted an extra large jar when I made it again.

Shortly after I began to feel better, I walked out to the shed to see how much jam my daughter had left me.  I discovered 3 jars of Mango jam that were in the wrong box, so I wrote to the early morning textor, and asked him if he wanted those jars.  And here was his story.

Mango tree in the Wider Curry’s yard.

His wife also works at Kaiser in Downey.  Apparently my daughter gave her a jar of Mango Jam to thank her for holding things in check while she was away taking care of me.  The wife took the jam home and had some on toast with her dinner.  She put what was left in the refrigerator.  Her husband – my textor – saw the opened jar of jam; tried it and liked it so well he mixed it with yogurt and ate the entire thing.  His wife was furious.  She said, “you know that I don’t like sweet things and this was the best jam I have ever had.”  He told me that she would not talk to him for three days!  He was desperate, and that is when he texted me!

He wanted to know if I would deliver the jam – not realizing that he was in LA and I was in San Diego.  He said he had to get it to her right away so she would stop being mad at him. Neither of us realized at that time that my daughter and his wife worked together.  I told him I could rush the 3 jars to him, but it would be very costly. He said he didn’t care – he didn’t like living with a woman that wouldn’t talk to him.

I told him I would call my daughter and see if by any chance she might have an extra jar of Mango jam that she had not yet given away.  Lo and behold – she had one.  I let the husband know and he wondered if she would give it to his wife the following day.  He said he didn’t care what it would cost – but it would be worth every penny.

My daughter and I decided that she would gift wrap the jam and give it to the wife, with a card from her husband.  He would apologize – in the card – for eating the first jar; promise not to eat any of this one – and hope that she would accept it for what it was worth.

When I told him what we were going to do he wrote me the following text:  “OMG – tomorrow is the day. I’m so excited. Once again thank you soooo much.”

And that is exactly what happened.  She was thrilled to receive the “gift”; She was so touched to think that her husband had contacted me to get another jar for her. She was a little embarrassed that my daughter was involved in easing her anger, and she could hardly wait to go home and open the new jar.

After he talked to her, he sent me the following message: “My wife was really happy. Thank you so much,  I really appreciate you. It almost made me cry!”  And his final comment – “I think you saved my marriage.”

If you are ever in a jam – let me know.  Although contrived, there might be a way of getting out of it!