The purse, made in Detroit

I stayed downtown late tonight taking advantage of the late-night sale at Macy’s on G Street. By the time I was done, I had two big shopping bags, plus my backpack and purse. I got on the Blue Line at Metro Center and got off 15 minutes later at Potomac Avenue. I went up the escalator to exit the station. I didn’t have my purse. The train was gone.

Panicked, I knocked on the window and got the Potomac Avenue station manager’s attention. He immediately took the retrieval of my purse as a personal mission. “All right, we’re gonna try and catch it,” he said. He called the Stadium-Armory station manager.

A few minutes later, incredibly, the Stadium-Armory station manager had the purse. A man on the train had turned it in.

To say I was relieved would be a colossal understatement. You know the hassle of having no cash or plastic. Worse, because my spouse is out of town, I would have had to call the landlord to get into the apartment. And what was his number, again? Instead, all I had to do was get on the train again and find the Stadium-Armory station manager. He seemed to think it was pretty miraculous, too, and insisted I check to make sure everything was there. Yes, it was: Smart Card, cash, credit cards, keys.

So let me offer a huge public thank you to the Potomac Avenue station manager, M. Wright, and to the Stadium station manager, whose name I failed to get. Nor do I know the name of the man who turned my purse in, but I thank him greatly and wish him some really excellent karma for Christmas.