The snarl in the woman’s voice inspired me to take a slight step backward. The chaos of the Zellers store had already put me on edge on this Boxing Day years ago, but she added an extreme negative vibe.

I cannot recall what she was returning to the store or why. What stands out in my memory is the terror in the clerk’s eyes and her obvious wish to be anywhere else.

Behind her, I clutched a set of bedsheets that my mother-in-law hated and wanted out of her house.

“Lilies,” she had said with disgust as she unwrapped the gift from her sister. “What, am I dead? I don’t want lilies lying over top of me until the day of my funeral. These have to go.”

She had a point. The black-and-white sheets were not to her taste at all. Who knows what her sister was thinking when she bought........

© Peterborough Examiner