Last night I took my daughter out to dinner. We ate a local Japanese Steak House (Little Tokyo) that we both love. The bill with tip included was around $75.00. But our fillet and shrimp were really good. And we both brought home left-overs that will make for dinner another night. We took separate cars because we each needed to run a few errands.
I headed to super WalMart and she went her own way. I'm not the most patient person and recently in that same store I had unloaded my items onto the conveyor belt when the clerk asked me to move to another line because she hadn't had her break yet. I must have looked at her like she had two heads, but she flipped out her light, walked around the counter and proceeded to help me put my items back into my cart. Then, she just walked away.
It was one of those moments where I wanted to just walk out and leave my cart, but I got in a different line with only one person in front of me. When the lady in front of me was done the clerk said, "I'll be back in just a second." And she too walked away. I clinched my teeth and waited. When she came back in what seemed like an eternity later and said, "how are you?" as I recall my remark was something like... "I'd be better if I could just get checked out and get OUT of this store."
So last night I needed to pick up just a few things, including some pizza rolls because that's what I promised the kids they could have for snack at children's church today. Once again something I really needed to purchase. I also had several other items. I got in line where a lady was paying ... thinking wow, what luck. As luck would have it, not so. The lady's debit card had been declined. She was on the phone with her husband asking him to look on line because she "knew" they had money in the bank. She told the clerk that although the bank balance showed enough money that it only had "available" $56.00.
So the clerk and the lady started a process of taking items one at a time out the cart, out of the bag and taking them off the order. And while I admit part of it was purely selfish reasons I butted into the lady's business and paid the difference with cash from my wallet. She was putting back cereal and well, I've only had $88.00 in my checking account from time to time in my life too.
The lady asked for my name so she could pay me back. I did tell her my name and give her a couple of cards. I told her no need to pay me back, but if she ever needs a real estate broker or knows someone wanting to buy a house or sell a house to give them my card. I told her it was my way of giving Thanks for the cash in my wallet and I really didn't want her to pay me back, that I just wanted her children to get their cereal.
She hugged me, the clerk hugged me. I was still in line for way longer than I wanted to be in line, but in the end I felt really good about what I did. I'm pretty sure I'm going to look for an opportunity to help someone in that way again in the future. Sometimes life has a way of saying "HA", you thought you got the short line. And when it does it again, I'm going to see how I can make the most of my time.
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