thank you [ladies]

it's no secret that i love a good story. decades from now, if the years are kind to me, i hope to be the type of grandfather that annoys his grandchildren with stories from the "good ol days", forcing them to listen to me babble on by tempting them with a bag of werthers original's stashed away in the pantry. their grandmother will eventually come in, chastise me for telling stories, and give them all the candy anyway, but that's beside the point.

i owe a very sincere "thank you" to two ladies whom i've never met. minnie "alberta" leeper, and verna o. turner. even though, i've never meet these ladies, i know a little piece of "their stories". I know that minnie helped her husband, william, run "leeper hardware" in holton kansas until she had to close it in 1984. at some point in the 1950's verna o. turner made a purchase from minnie in leeper hardware. through the proceeding years that purchase served her and her family in the best way any object can, by bringing people together. fifty years later, and passing through the hands of other wonderful people, it's now landed in my possession.

there are a few more details to the story, but it's best told over a cup of coffee...