Have you ever encountered a circumstance that totally alters your view of yourself, challenges your existing beliefs, and causes you to reevaluate your understanding of yourself and your place in the world?

It happened to me a few weeks ago, not once, but twice.

The first incident occurred at a fast-casual restaurant. I was eating lunch, reading my Kindle, seated next to a young mom with an infant in a carriage and a three-year-old boy.

I watched as the three-year-old tried to scoop up Mexican rice with a tortilla chip.  The infant began to fuss and then cried loudly.

The mom became flustered as she tried to catch the eye of an employee to bring her a to-go container for their food so she could leave before the infant had a total meltdown. I offered to get her a container and put her food in it as she cradled the baby while explaining to the boy why they had to leave in such a hurry.

I chatted with the boy as I gathered the food, asking him if he was a big brother. He pointed to the infant with a big smile.

As I handed the mom her food, she said, “Thank you so very much. You must be a great mom and a wonderful grandma.”

I explained that my husband and I had not been blessed with children but thanked her for her kind words as she left the restaurant.

Later, though, I began to reflect, “Do I look like a grandma? What do grandmother’s look like?”  Then I thought of my fit and fabulous fifty-something-year-old friend with one grandchild and another on the way, and my younger sister with two grandchildren and a third due any day.

I decided that grandmothers look a whole lot different today than they did when my grandparents were alive. After some reflection, I decided I was okay with being considered a grandma.

But the real challenge was yet to come.

On Mother’s Day, my husband and I had brunch at a favorite restaurant. As we entered, the owner hugged me and said, “Happy Mother’s Day.”  I explained I wasn’t a mother, and he said, “We are all mothers today.”  That was a nice, inclusive sentiment.

We happened to be seated next to an older couple and their daughter, who looked to be in her forties.

As we were leaving, the daughter and I looked at one another and she said, “I know I know you, I just don’t know from where.” We tried to find a point of connection as she looked very familiar to me, too, but we could not find one.

I was answering a question her father had asked when the daughter began to make small talk with my husband. She pointed to me and asked, “Is this your mother?”

As I am so rarely, I was at a loss for words, so my husband piped up and said, “She is my wife,” and rambling on, “I am three years younger than her.”

The girl’s parents told her, “Well, you really put your foot in that one.”

As I was saying, “No worries,” the daughter began apologizing to my husband. My husband still can’t figure out why she apologized to him.

At the grocery store on the way home, I saw a friend who asked me if I did anything special for Mother’s Day.  I told her about our brunch and my being mistaken for my husband’s mother (who, if she was still living, would have been 95 this year).

She kept saying, “Oh my gosh, you are so pretty, how could she say that?”

It just kept getting better. The next day, I relayed the incident to my mother, who said, “Now, THAT’S funny,” and to my eighty-something-year-old friend, who just could not stop laughing. (I am so glad I could make her day.)

Ah well. In the end, a little grace and a good laugh go a long way. Life’s too short not to enjoy the misunderstandings, too.