I’m cashiering and a woman has a lot of school supplies, totaling around $70. I ask her about them, and she says “I’m a teacher. They’re for my class.” She gives me a credit card. Rejected. A second card is also rejected. The line is long, and I hate to have to cancel her order. I say “Do you have another card?” She says “No.” The lady behind her says “Put it on my card” and hands it to me.
The teacher and I both go into shock. I say “Are you sure?” and she says “Yes.” So I put the card through and the teacher, after thanking the woman five times, goes out with her order. When I thank the lady, she says in a off handed way “She’s a teacher. She probably buys a lot for the school.”
That is so true. This is a great thread and I have tears in my eyes. I may have posted this before somewhere, but when we were finally flying to adopt our daughter, after many delays, our first flight was behind schedule and I was so distraught we would miss our connecting flight. It didn’t help matters that we were all the way in the back of the plane and that it was the only part of the trip to and from that I wasn’t sitting right next to my husband. The woman next to me must have picked up on my distress and asked if I was ok. The next thing I knew, a flight attendant came up to my husband and I and told us a young couple much further up the aisle insisted on switching seats with us. When we were settled in, the attendant got on the speaker and told everyone, this family is on there way to bring home their baby, when the door opens, please stay in your seats, they will be getting off first. She then made sure we knew exactly where our next terminal was. As we disembarked, everyone was so kind. I have no idea who any of those people were, but their random acts of kindness will never be forgotten.
With all our daily sturm and drang – especially on these boards – I think it is easy to forget, once they get past their politics most people most of the time are pretty decent.
When I started my new job, I was beyond broke. We were thousands of dollars deep into credit card debt, trying to keep a roof over our heads, feed our children, etc. I also needed to pay my son’s daycare in advance, before I even brought in a single paycheck. We were broke.
I was at the local optometrist getting fitted for my prescription safety glasses (the company paid for them). At the next table was a mom and her daughter. The daughter needed glasses, but their medical assistance didn’t cover 100% of the glasses. They still needed to pay $5. The mom was going through her purse, pulling out coins to make the deposit so they could start making the glasses. She could only come up with $2.25 of the 2.50 she needed. I had a single in my purse (it was literally my last dollar until payday), so I pulled it out and set it on the table next to me, saying nothing. The mom insisted on giving me the .75 she had extra, and I said, no. Put it towards the cost of the glasses.
I finished my fitting and I hope that the girl is succeeding in school because she can see the chalkboard now. I still think about her, but this is the first time I told anyone what I did.
Pretty small, but it was inspired by me reading this thread early this morning.
Stopped at a favorite restaurant for lunch, and was seated promptly, but several minutes passed without a waitress. The waitress taking care of the tables near me stopped and said “your waitress is busy with a to-go order right now, so what do you want to drink.” Took my drink and later my sandwich order. The regular waitress brought my food and took good care of me, so she earned her tip, but I stopped the waitress who had taken time to help out and handed her a couple of dollars–yeah, small potatoes compared to some of the above, but letting someone know that their kindness is appreciated is worht mentioning, I think.
