Oh, how I love my morning coffee! Can’t seem to start the day without it. So imagine my distress when I pulled my can of fresh coffee grounds from the kitchen pantry shelf. It felt a little light. I looked inside. Not even enough for a single cup.
Just one more downbeat note in my life, I thought. First my painful divorce. Then the pressures of having to raise four children on my own. And now this. My salary as a bookkeeper had been stretched to the limit as it was, and coffee wasn’t in the grocery budget this week. I slumped on a kitchen chair. I felt like all my energy had been sapped away.
My first reaction, I admit, was bitter and selfish. I bet my ex-husband is enjoying a steaming cup of his favorite flavored latte just about now, I silently pouted. Quickly, I reprimanded myself. Lord, don’t let me sink into anger over something so petty, I prayed. The cloud that had settled over me magically lifted, and I went about getting my children ready for school.
I was straightening the house a few hours later when the telephone rang. It was one of those marketing companies that recruit people to test products that haven’t yet reached the store shelves. The caller asked if I’d like to test one of their products. “We’ll send you the product for free, and you try it out, and then you fill out a questionnaire on what you thought about it,” the caller said.
With money as tight as it was in our household, free sounded good to me. “Sure,” I said. “What will I be testing?”
"Every other week for the next several months, we’ll send you a fresh, one-pound can of coffee," the caller said. "All you need to do is drink one cup from the first can and tell us how you liked it. The rest of the coffee is for your own enjoyment.”
If I were the coffee company, I’d name the brand, Heaven Sent.
