A few years ago I was at the grocery store on the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving and had bought a big basket of groceries for our
meal the next day. In the basket was a large turkey and a ham and
all the other things that go with a Thanksgiving meal. I noticed the
lady just ahead of me in the checkout line, she was elderly and very thin.
With her was a young girl who looked to be about 15 but she had a small
baby. I noticed that they had very meager amount of groceries with one
of the cheapest cuts of meat and I thought to myself, this is their Thanksgiving
Dinner. They also had a couple cans of baby formula. When the clerk finished
ringing up her purchases, the lady dug into her purse but she did not have
enough money to pay for everything. They begin to sit aside items that they
could not pay for. One of the things that they were returning was one can of
baby formula. I asked the lady if she would let me pay for the items that she
could not afford. She and the young girl both begin to cry. I told the clerk that
I would pay for all their groceries and I told her to ring up my basket and that
I was going to give my groceries to them also. I then told the young girl to go
get a case of baby formula and any thing else that she needed for the baby,
diapers, food, just what ever and I would pay for it. Two other ladies were behind
me in the checkout line and I told them that they could go on around us but
they said no, we can wait, one said you do not have a chance to see something like
this very often. The store clerk and both the ladies in line were wiping tears from
their eyes. When all the groceries were checked and paid for I helped place
them in their beatup old car. I handed the lady $60 (it was all the cash that I had
with me). She hugged me and thanked me and said, "God will bless you". I told
her that he already had. I returned to the store to retrace my steps hopping I
could remember everything that I had in the first basket, this time it was not
the chore that it had been previously.
Yes, Reese you can "Pay it forward" thanks for the idea of the Wal-Mart gift
card, the next time that I am there I am going to purchase a couple of them
to have in my wallet when I see a person in need. I will probably think of
you and your neat idea when I use them.
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