Stories of Kindness from Around the World

When I was a young girl, my mother and father divorced which devastated our finances.  My mother accepted food from an uncle that worked at a seafood packing plant that offered torn and shredded food for free as they could not sell it.  We ate a LOT of seafood.  I remember times when my mother would be in such despair trying to spread what little cash she had over the need for groceries to feed us and to this day it pains me to see others in that condition.

One day this winter, I dropped into a store to buy a last minute item.  It was not my regular store, but it was the one I chose.  I think it was chosen for me.  Times this winter were very hard on us with the construction industry being so slow, but I felt compelled to do something about the woman and her two sons ahead of me in line.  She ran out of cash and had to put some things back in order to be able to pay for her order.  Watching this play out was painful, very painful.

When she was done, the clerk rang up my order and I asked to add a gift card onto my order.  The clerk didn't have the amount I asked for and had to search for it.  I was stressed thinking that I wouldn't have time to find the lady in the parking lot if it took much more time to get the gift card I wanted to buy. 

Another couple of minutes passed and finally the clerk completed my order.  I paid for it and was on my way out the door.  The money I used was what I had extra at the time and thought for a moment that I might be creating a hardship for myself.  I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I needed to do this anyway.   Frantically, I looked for her and her sons. I walked up to the car door as she just put it in gear to pull out.  She rolled down her window and I handed her the card saying, "Please, go home and watch the movie Pay it Forward."

I quickly walked away, got in my car and sobbed deeply.  I was so thankful for the opportunity to do that and asked for more opportunities to do more of the same.  It's what I want to do!  Now if I can figure out how to make more money, I can do that all day long -- I will be the happiest person on the planet!   

Thank you for watching for opportunities to make a difference in our world!  Sharing this story may negate this one good deed, but I hope to inspire others to do more of the same.