Random Kindness

This life is not always rosebuds and moonshine; I think almost everyone knows that. Some days just feel like there’s no end to the miseries. Today I’d like to share with you a woman who made a deep impression onto me. She thought of putting herself in the others shoes and stepped up, without being asked to. Without anyone taking her name and giving her acknowledgement, nobody would pin up her name in a public space. So, I thought, let’s give her some attention.

So the other day I was working at Walmart, and honestly it had been quite a shitty day. Extreme cold, Purna going on a little vacation to Puerto Rico (turned out no vacation at all, and their trip was probably worse than my lonely cold day, but hey, I was not aware of that then) and just the work itself isn’t all that rewarding. Imagine day after day after day, scanning item after item.. but around 7 o’clock in the evening, a lady named Jolie came by with her cookies, juices, frozen food and cough medicine. Jolie means ‘pretty’ or ‘nice’ in French, and that actually described her quite well. She was about 68 years old, wrinkly, seemingly poor, but she drove her little Walmart scooter around the store with a smile on her face. At the register, looking at all her items, Miss Jolie realized that she didn’t have enough money to pay for all her groceries, and decided not to take the cough medicine. Slowly she put all her items on the belt, going from most immediate necessity to all the extra items that she might not be able to afford. When it got to over fifty, she told me to put all the other stuff away. I felt slightly bad for her, but what could I do. It’s a situation that we cashiers experience at least 5 times every single day, so we grow kind of cold to it.

Suddenly, the lady behind her offers to pay for her medicine, and she wanted to pay for 20 dollar more of Miss Jolie’s groceries. So, we arranged to have the first transaction voided, gave Miss Jolie her money back and I scanned all her items again. Jolie had tears in her eyes and kept thanking the lord for coming down to her. I think her faith in God became a lot stronger that day. Miss Lisa, the beneficent, tried to hide the tears in her eyes too and she mumbled to no one in particular how she remembers herself being in that position.  When I hit $ 40, Miss Jolie paid her forty dollars, thus keeping a twenty, and Miss Lisa paid the remaining 43 dollars on her card. If that wasn’t enough, she also took out 20 dollars of her own hard earned money and pressed it in Miss Jolie’s hands. They embraced each other, and were introduced to each other’s husbands and son. There were for once no tears of pain, but of gratefulness and faith. I stood there speechless, witness of honest neighborliness and felt my eyes water too.

Bear in mind, Miss Lisa paid 60 dollars for a woman she never saw before, she might never see again, that has no blood relations with her whatsoever, and that she will not be recognized for her action in any material way.  She stepped it up, and I admire her deeply.

I believe goodness can happen anywhere, even at your local Walmart, although a place full of dead animals and clothing sewed together by 5 year olds.