On January 7 I went to the Des Peres Lodge, where I am a member, to do routine exercises. Normally, I leave my hearing aids at home so I can use earbuds connected to my iPhone while I exercise. But on that day I was wearing the hearing aids when I got to the Lodge. I took the hearing aids out and stowed them in the pocket of a jacket hanging on a hook near the track. I thought it was my jacket, but when I reached into my jacket pocket after exercising, the hearing aids were not there. I had put them in the pocket of someone else’s jacket, hanging next to mine and resembling my jacket’s style and color – and that jacket was gone when I went back to search for the missing hearing aids.
I asked the management at the Lodge to be on the lookout for misplaced hearing aids. Perhaps the person whose jacket I put the hearing aids in would discover them. And figure out they got pocketed at the Lodge. And return them to the Lodge. And the Lodge would notify me. All of these things happening made it a really long shot.
On January 15 a woman named Karen reached in her jacket pocket and found hearing aids, which was a total surprise to her. She racked her brain, and concluded that the only place she had left her jacket unattended was at the Lodge. She called the Lodge. The desk there called me, gave me Karen's number. I called Karen, she gave me her Chesterfield address, and 20 minutes later she handed the hearing aids to me. She refused a cash reward, saying she wasn't raised that way.
It is comforting to know that there are Karens in the world.
And yes, I know that some people use "Karen" as a derogatory term. I won't, that's for sure.
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