I read an article this week that I just kept coming back to and rereading. It retells the friendship that formed between Gilnet Sainvil, a Haitian-born immigrant working at a Publix Super Market in Fort Myers, FL, and Fiona Smith, still in a stroller when her mom and maternal grandparents took her grocery shopping every Saturday. Sainvil, who worked in the produce section, made his warm introduction to Fiona with the universal high-five gesture. Practice makes perfect and by the time she was two Fiona was bee-lining her way to the produce section with her little hand held up ready for a clap back. And so it came to be that Gilnet was “High Five” to Fiona. There is a lot more to the story including a precious short clip of the little girl giving her Saturday friend a card after they hadn’t seen each other in a while because Sainvil was reassigned to a different store location. If you read the article it will make more sense but Fiona’s mom has since launched a website called “Who’s Your High Five?”

This week Bill V. in Omaha, NE, is my High Five.  I’ve never met Bill but back in the fall, I borrowed his car.  Several years ago I stumbled upon the Turo app and was fascinated by the concept.  In a nutshell, it’s the car rental version of Airbnb or Vrbo or RVshare (for you campers); basically a peer-to-peer website for connecting those who own to those who want to borrow.  With Turo, you can rent anything from a hooptie to a Humvee, plus just about any other type of vehicle you can imagine.  If somebody owns it and is willing to loan it, then it’s a matter of how much and who’s willing.  So last fall I finally got the opportunity to use Turo, in large part because of the current rental car industry shortage situation and soaring costs.  My oldest and I were college shopping (readers may recall my younger son attended his first concert with a buddy of mine that same weekend for his 16^th birthday), and so I was envisioning going bananas and renting a yellow Lambo.  I should mention here that Turo does not offer a layaway option so I scaled down my search but landed on a pretty cool car in its own right – a Mini Cooper Paceman limited release John Cooper Works edition.

A few weeks ago, and now that our son has dialed in a clear frontrunner, I made plans (in haste) for my wife and him to make a trip and tour the campus and area.  I was working the airfare prices pretty hard on Google Flights and when there was a price drop one evening and I got the alert, I locked in the savings!  Nonrefundable of course and when I texted my wife the next morning, she responded back “Easter?”  So I’m going to just skip right over that small oversight and get back to Bill V. in Omaha.  I reached out to him again and secured his Mini Cooper, and asked if he would do me a small favor.  I asked if I could email him a pdf to print out and leave in the passenger seat.  He obliged and then I got this pic from my wife earlier today after they landed…

When I sent him a message of deep thanks this afternoon, he said he was glad they enjoyed it and it was fun for him too.  Bill’s a pretty common name yet Bill V. did a fairly uncommon thing.  He answered my musings on what if and then why not.  My wife reminded me today (some 600 miles away albeit thanks to her booking agent) about this season of renewal and new beginnings.  Today was a good day as witness to living testimony.  To paraphrase an Easter saying, “no winter lasts forever” unless you’re in Omaha!

PS – Hurry home sweetheart and sorry about the free breakfast buffet not working out – the online coupon site said it had a 62% like rating so I guess you beat the odds. 🙂