I know exactly how you are feeling.....similar thing happened to me 2 years ago.....when I was packing my truck to drive from my farm in Kentucky to drive back to California, I was only packing a few things & cloths to wear while there. I was planning on practicing my flute as I was going to play for my church here in Kentucky at Christmas.....When I was packing my truck, a little voice inside said that I needed to put my flute under the seat in my truck.....& was in such a hurry to pack & had already put things on top of the seat area where I was thinking to put my flute (my flute was a solid sterling silver flute...professional flute I had since college). I blew if off thinking, I was just driving there & no one would get into my truck anyway, so I left in in the bottom of my catch all bag that I threw everything I thought I would go through once I got back.

Well, I drove into Albuquerque, New Mexico.....late at night after running out of gas on the highway. Checked into a motel.....thinking only of getting a little sleep & getting going early in the morning. Went out to my truck the next morning & my truck had been broken into.....the only bag stolen was that bag that my flute was in....it was at the bottom, so I know they didn't take the bag because of that....but it had all my receipts & information I was working on filing on the expenses for my farm.......turned out later that day, I found out that my ID had also been stolen off the credit card I used to pay for the motel room.....the police would't do anything about it. A nice lady from the news paper wrote an article about my flute, of no avail. I wrote a letter to the lady who my stolen credit card was used to help but she never got the letter (it was sent certified).

I am still crushed by the loss of my flute....it was so expensive that I could never replace it & what little money I got from the insurance was needed for medications a few months later. I still am in tears at the loss.....my flute had gotten me through much of my depression & I had played it at my fathers funeral.....it was part of my life that I can't replace.......I understand how horrible you feel....not only at yourself for not having been distracted & forgetting to pick up your things, but also that there are people who are in this world that take things that aren't theirs with no bad feelings.....the anger that there are people out there who do things like that is even more to be irritated at than our forgetfullness or in my case, lack of following through on that little voice that told me what I should have done.

I have realized that when things like this happen, it is a loss that we go through a grieving process with.....not an easy thing to realize either.....it takes time & I know for one, I have lost all trust in humanity.

Be nice to yourself...it takes time to get through how you are feeling I know....& you have a right to be angry at whoever did this. With time the pain lessens, but the reality of having something taken from you never really goes away.

Take care of yourself in all of these feelings & don't beat yourself up for not having remembered your items at the time.


Debbie