{"id":781,"date":"2012-04-10T09:29:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T14:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?p=781"},"modified":"2012-04-30T18:55:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T23:55:41","slug":"a-chance-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/","title":{"rendered":"A Chance Encounter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Christophers\u2019 Jerry Costello shares the story of one of this year\u2019s Christopher Award-winning books:<\/p>\n

It was just a chance encounter, an unlikely meeting on a city street between strangers that happened a long time ago. But today the two people who met that way will tell you that it was simply meant to be. And who\u2019s to say they\u2019re wrong? Anyway, here\u2019s how it happened:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One day back in 1986, a 35-year-old newspaper executive named Laura Schroff was walking on a street in Manhattan when she was approached by a boy who asked if she had any spare change. At first she ignored him by simply walking on by, but something made her turn and go back. The boy\u2019s name was Maurice Mazyck, and he was 11. Schroff had no change to give him, but asked him instead if she could buy him a lunch at McDonald\u2019s. Since lunch was the reason he was asking for change to begin with, that was fine with him. And that meal would begin a friendship that has endured down through the years, one that would change both their lives forever.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Laura and Maurice\u2019s story is told in the Christopher Award-winning book \u201cAn Invisible Thread<\/a>\u201d (written by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski). Unlikely might not be the best word to describe Laura and Maurice\u2019s friendship; unbelievable is probably more like it. One was an adult, the other a child; she is white, he\u2019s black; she lived in a luxury high-rise, and he in a welfare hotel. Still their relationship flourished as it grew.<\/p>\n

Maurice\u2019s background was troubled: his father a gang member who left home when the boy was 6; his mother a jobless drug addict. \u201cI know my mother did the best she could,\u201d he says today. <\/p>\n

Three days after that first meeting, Schroff went looking for the boy, and found him on the same street corner. They agreed to keep meeting once a week, and while she first took him out to eat eventually she brought him home and cooked for him there. It was there, too, that he found a completely different world: setting the table, doing laundry, conversing. Soon she was doing things she had missed out on in her own childhood\u2013taking him to his first baseball game, buying him a bike, letting him decorate his first Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

Unlikely it might have been, but the friendship brought something to both Schroff and young Maurice Mazcyk. He accepted her offer to fix him a lunch to bring to school, but asked that she put it in a brown bag. \u201cWhen kids see you walk in with a paper bag,\u201d he explained, \u201cthey know someone cares about you.\u201d What about Laura Schroff? \u201cSometimes blessings are right in front of you, just as Maurice was in front of me,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes you just have to open your eyes and open your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>With an interruption or two, this is a friendship that has gone on and on. When Mazcyk\u2019s mother died, he told Schroff she was his mother now. A 37-year-old with his own construction firm, he\u2019s married and has seven children. The family has Schroff over for dinner once a month, often around the same kind of big table he remembers she showed him as a boy.<\/p>\n

Looking back today, Laura Schroff reflects on why she went looking for Maurice after that first meeting: \u201cI felt like he\u2019d entered my life for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a chance encounter? Maybe. And maybe, too, a lot more.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Christophers\u2019 Jerry Costello shares the story of one of this year\u2019s Christopher Award-winning books: It was just a chance encounter, an unlikely meeting on a city street between strangers that happened a long time ago. But today the two people who met that way will tell you that it was simply meant to be. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":488,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,10],"tags":[99,89],"class_list":["post-781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-christopher-awards","tag-books","tag-christopher-awards"],"yoast_head":"\nA Chance Encounter?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Christophers' Jerry Costello shares the story of one of this year's Christopher Award-winning books: It was just a chance encounter, an unlikely\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Chance Encounter?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Christophers' Jerry Costello shares the story of one of this year's Christopher Award-winning books: It was just a chance encounter, an unlikely\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christopher Closeup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-10T14:29:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-30T23:55:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/christophers\/files\/2012\/04\/LSchroff3-287x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Rossi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/\",\"name\":\"A Chance Encounter?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-10T14:29:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-30T23:55:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\"},\"description\":\"The Christophers' Jerry Costello shares the story of one of this year's Christopher Award-winning books: It was just a chance encounter, an unlikely\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/04\/a-chance-encounter\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Chance Encounter?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/\",\"name\":\"Christopher Closeup\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/9215d33862959dfe2334a97a802ebf1d\",\"name\":\"Tony Rossi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef58b23d79989facf5779819377620d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tony Rossi\"},\"description\":\"After graduating from St. John's University in New York with degrees in Communications and English, Tony Rossi found a job at the Catholic media organization, The Christophers, that allowed him to indulge his interest in religion, media, and pop culture. 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