Helping Hand for the Holidays (Or asskickingly awesome random acts of kindness) (334 hits)
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Submitted by Zoidberg (View user info) at 2006-11-30 22:30:50 EST
I was part of a discussion in a forum about cool true acts of kindness experienced, both towards and from strangers and it really lifted my spirits. Here's a quick story of mine that still makes me smile to think about it. Anyone else have any?
It was the coldest night of the year (or it felt like anyway). The roads were icy as fuck, but I was bored as hell and decided to get a couple of video games, so I drove to Wal-Mart.
In front of me in line was a young couple with a baby, buying a package of diapers. The mother was on crutches with a pretty heavy-duty cast around her right leg. They both looked pretty down and out, their coats were threadbare, it looked like everything they had that was nice and warm was wrapped around their baby.
The guy decided it would be best to go get the car so his crippled wife/girlfriend (whichever) wouldn't have to walk that far, so he left her with the diapers and took the baby with him to their car. By this time the line had gotten shorter (or at least my position relative to the checkout stand had) and I got distracted by one of the Archie and Friends on the magazine rack at the checkout stand (Jughead cracks me up) when a small commotion ahead of me drew me out of my stupor.
The mother had somehow managed to put the diapers on the conveyor despite the crutches and was frantically searching through her purse for more money. It seems she didn't have enough to pay for the diapers. She broke down and started sobbing, how the baby had so many health problems after the car accident, how she was having trouble getting back to work waiting tables after breaking her leg and with the back troubles the accident caused her, and begging the cashier and everyone else in line to just wait, she was sure she had more money in her purse somewhere. But she didn't.
The poor checkout girl (she couldn't have been more than 17) obviously had no idea what to do and looked to be near tears too. Behind me a lot of people were shifting uncomfortably in line. I felt incredibly guilty about being wrapped up in a stupid comic book so I sheepishly put it down, squared my shoulders, and told her, "Don't worry about it, I'll help."
I still wasn't even sure how she managed to pick the diapers up off the floor and placed them on the checkout stand with that huge cast on her leg, but it sure as hell couldn't have felt pleasant. But if she couldn't pay for them, it was obvious with that cast on she'd need help, so I was glad to do it. The profoundly grateful look she gave me was incredible. She wiped her face and stuttered out a tearful thank you. I told her not to worry about it, picked the diapers up and moved them out of the way for her, setting them behind me on top of the Coca-Cola case next to the magazine rack. Then I gave the cashier the video games (and a couple of DVD's I picked up on their 9.99 rack) paid, and quickly walked away before anyone could think to thank me again.
I had a warm fuzzy feeling all that next week whenever I played my video games.
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Submitted by ChristPuncher (user info) at 2007-01-19 02:32:36 EST (#)
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