A few weeks ago my day began with a few sprinkles of rain. By the end of the day I had buckets of water pouring over my head, especially when I found myself going through my backpack frantically looking for my thick brown wallet. A wallet overflowing with receipts carrying all my information, identification cards, drivers license and my family’s money for groceries.

I remember feeling a sensation of numbness come over me as my blood pressure descended.  I felt like a zombie as I sat in my car outside the grocery store staring at my 13-year-old son and my two -year-old baby boy.

I returned to campus and checked each place I had been throughout the day, from classroom to classroom and bathroom to bathroom. I ran to the  police department and found the doors locked and no one around.  I saw the emergency pole, pressed the red button and found myself asking the operator if I could have an officer assist me. He asked me to come back the second day and told me that all the officers were too busy at a current scene and were not able to help me.

I left there feeling even worse. I felt so helpless and extremely worried.  I started to pray. Sure enough, far away in the distance, I saw through my rear mirror what looked to be a police car.

I stopped in the middle of the road and started to walk nervously toward the cop car.

As I approached, the officer rolled down his window and I began to tell him what I needed.

I told him lost and found had refused to help and that I was advised to come the following day.  He proceeded to let me know he could only take down a report in case I needed proof of it being lost for future reference and that he could look in the log to see if it was in the lost and found. Immediately, as promised,  he checked the log and did not find anything logged in for a wallet.

After going to the back and searching, he found my thick brown wallet. All my  things were there. My debit cards, my food stamp card with my grocery and half of my rent money.

I turned around and hugged this man, took a glimpse at his nametag and there it was. Gess.

I am glad I did not listen to the operator who denied me help and disregarded the welfare of my family and protocol for a lost or stolen wallet.

I am thankful to God for my persistence for help, which directly restored my faith in who protects our campus.

To officer Gess and the unknown person who returned my wallet: May God bless you both and reward your families.