Dan needed his Brigham’s vanilla ice cream! I had finished all the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving days earlier. The last place I wanted to be at 4pm on the day before Thanksgiving last year was a big supermarket, but Dan wanted his Brigham’s! So I dutifully trekked the mile to the Star Market, grabbed up four quarts and picked a checkout line.
I always pick the wrong line. This line was short, but I was behind an elderly Asian woman in a motorized grocery cart. She only had about a dozen items, but the checkout process would prove to be a trial.
She pulled into the narrow aisle next to the conveyor belt to unload her items. She had trouble reaching up and dropped an item on the ground, then couldn’t reach down to get it. Without hesitation, I scooped it up and placed it on the belt, then moved to a better position to help her unload her whole cart. She never smiled at me or acknowledged my help. When I was done, I moved back to my place behind her, still holding my four quarts of vanilla ice cream.
The person checking her out was new to the Star Market (I go there so often that I know all the clerks) and perhaps new to the country, as she wore a headscarf and spoke heavily-accented, hesitant English. The customer pulled out her change purse to pay with cash, which meant she needed exact cash back for the purchase. The poor woman ringing her up counted, counted again, then a third time to ensure the count was accurate. American currency was something she had rarely encountered, so making change was really difficult for her. This took a long time (my ice cream was freezing my hands and the line behind me grew long). The old woman never spoke, indeed, never let on that she understood English. The manager saw the trouble and came to help.
The manager asked the elderly woman if she’d need help getting to her car (the store is up an escalator on the second story). The woman didn’t answer, but the manager called one of the other attendants to help her. The manager couldn’t get her to move out of the aisle. The manager checked the clerk’s count, and double checked it. The elderly woman counted it out herself, very slowly, but would not be persuaded to move out of the aisle. The whole operation at that counter had ground to a halt.
The manager gave me frantic looks. I shrugged. There wasn’t much to do but wait. Finally, they got the woman to move along, content that she had the correct cash back and would be taken care of. We really did not know if she was hard of hearing, had dementia, or just what was going on with her. But she needed to be handled with patience and tact.
The manager apologized to me. I smiled and responded, “Hey, everybody deserves a little kindness.”
With all the ugliness and divisiveness in the world today, I felt good about what I had done. I had helped a stranger, then shown some patience. No biggie. I had also done a favor for my husband, but that’s another story.
Betsy PfauRetired from software sales long ago, two grown children. Theater major in college. Singer still, arts lover, involved in art museums locally (Greater Boston area). Originally from Detroit area.
Lovely story, Betsy. And, unlike me, you have really described a true random act of kindness on your part. Nothing was expected of you and the recipient was a total stranger. Good for you! And the fact that you did this while in the midst of doing another favor — though hardly random, in the case of a spouse — makes it doubly good. As is said on (rare) occasion in our family, “Your halo is on straight.”
Thank you, John.
Your story is a great example of your kindness and patience, Betsy. Especially because you (and others) did it without being thanked. You are right — we need lots more compassion for others and kindness these days.
BTW, have been in that market many times in the days when we could visit our kids/grandkids in Newton.
Thank you, Laurie. And nice to know you’ve been in my neighborhood (as well as my childhood neighborhood)! I look forward to the time when we can all see our kids again.
Betsy, a very timely story as we approach Thanksgiving. And even this year, a grocery store on the afternoon before Thanksgiving is the last place any of us would want to be. You were truly kind to this woman you didn’t know, which I am not sure I could have been. Thank you (on her behalf) for bestowing that random act of kindness.
I appreciate the thank you from you, Suzy.
You set a great example for us all, Betsy. It’s so hard sometimes to be patient, but you took a deep breath and helped out. Kudos to you.
Thanks, Marian. As I said, everyone deserves some kindness.
I love this little story, Bets, and I commend your patience. Some people act like being old or confused is a crime. To say what goes around comes around sounds trite, but if everyone acted like it were true, what a wonderful world this would be.
I agree…what a wonderful world it truly would be!
Thanx Betsy, we’ve all been on those check-out lines where the impatience and down-right cruelty of some people is astounding. It’s good to hear about the kinder people at your local
market instead.
And even among bus drivers there are those who smile and greet each passenger, and those who shut the door leaving folks on the curb or running toward the bus stop with hands waving.
It seems there are two types of people in this world – the kind and the unkind!
Thankfully we got a kind one for the White House this time.
Thanks for placing me in the “kind” category, Dana. And yes, it will be wonderful to have an empathetic, kind leader again!
This would make a good story to get middle school kids to “write your own ending.” Just leave them with the very vividly described and even agonizing discomfort and difficulty of standing in that line, watching and waiting as your hands freeze, and see what they come up with. Myself, I was waiting for the manager to do you an act of kindness by giving you a nice insulated bag and offering to throw in some hot fudge sauce, marascino cherries, and walnut bits as a thanks for having such courteous customers.
That would be a good ending, Dale. But sometimes, just knowing that I did the right thing was its own reward. I honestly smiled the whole way home.
Nicely told, Betsy. We’ve all swerved to avoid the checkout line with the proverbial “little old lady” counting change. But you told the story with such compassion, even as the aggravating minutes ticked by, that I knew it would have a happy ending. And, BTW, isn’t that the “Stah mahket?” Just sayin’…
Thanks, Charles. “Stah market, indeed”!