{personal} our sixth wedding anniversary

For our first wedding anniversary, we received a card in the mail from my maternal grandmother and grandfather that contained the obligatory well wishes and a single gold dollar stashed inside. The following year we received another card from them with two gold dollars. I thought it was a clever and surprising sentiment and was looking forward to growing our collection as the years went by, envisioning a box full of coins representing the years of our wedded bliss.

The third year my grandfather became sick and wasn't able to send the coins, but I went to the bank and requested them anyway. I figured I would keep the tradition going, even if he couldn't. He ended up passing away later that same year.

One the day he died, I was working my retail job and ringing up customers at the cash register. Near the end of the my shift I was helping a customer who paid cash with some gold dollars, which immediately made me think of my grandfather, as I didn't come across gold dollars very often. After I got home I received a call from my mom telling them that he had passed away. I told her about the gold dollars and asked her if she knew what time he had died and she told me it was sometime between 7:45 and 8pm Eastern Time. The next day at work I looked up the transaction from the day before and the time stamp read 4:54pm Pacific Standard Time. A three-hour time difference would put it at 7:54pm Eastern Time, around the exact time that he passed away.

My grandmother, my mother and myself all agree that it was definitely Grandpa saying goodbye to me.

Today is our sixth wedding anniversary and, just as I do every year, I went to the bank and exchanged six dollar bills for six gold dollars to add to our collection.