I attended a luncheon in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  My very dear friend is a survivor and a member of the group hosting the event.  I was happy to be able to attend.

 The members collected donations to be raffled from the very generous community .  Each guest could purchase tickets to win any of the approximately 50 prizes. 

 After purchasing my tickets, I made my way to the raffle.  The method used to determine the winners was similar to a silent auction.  But instead of bidding, you would place a ticket in the bag by the gift you would like a chance to win.  I decided to peruse all of the offerings before distributing my tickets.  At the second table, I spied a beautiful, petal pink pashmina.  My fingers glided over the finely loomed cashmere and I was “sold.”  I confidently put all of my tickets into the bag!

 Authentic pashmina yarn is woven of hand gathered wool from the underbelly of Himalayan goats.  And, this was the real thing.  Knowing the origin of the prize and that  pink is my best color, I felt sure that I would win this beauty.  Having “stuffed the ballot box” insured success!

 After a delicious lunch and a heart warming speech the raffle began.  Finally, the pink pashmina came up.  The number was drawn.  And it was not one of mine.  How could that be?  But, as luck would have it, that person had already left.  Another number was drawn, and while it was close to one of my numbers, it wasn’t mine either.  After a moment of disappointment, I reminded myself the reason for being there was for donations and support of a very good cause.

 I felt good that lots of money was raised for much needed continuing research.  As I was leaving, I congratulated the winner of “my pashima” and told her how pretty it would be on her.  She said, “I’m going to give it to my best friend.  Tomorrow is her one year anniversary of being a breast cancer survivor”. 

 Ohhhhhh.  I was so happy to have been a loser!