A Random Act of Kindness

May 21, 2007

Brian, Truman, and I were living in a house in Greenwood at the time. I was happily working at Home Depot. On this particular evening, Truman and I went up to Price Chopper to get groceries for the house (I'm more of a HyVee person, but that was the closest grocery store to the house). So I take my time and look around until I get everything I thought we needed.

When I go to pay for the groceries, my debit card is declined. Odd... I just got paid 3 days ago. There's plenty of money in my account. So I try again with a smaller total... still declined. A group of 3 people my age are behind me, buying beer and supplies for what looks like a weekend at the lake. One of the guys, who I recognize from around town (maybe even from school), offers to pay for my groceries. I decline and make two more attempts with my debit card. I then ask the cashier to suspend my transaction and head to the ATM a few feet away.

My account balance was 27 cents.

Brian....

What the fuck did you spend with my debit card???

I go back to the register and aplologize that I cannot pay for my food. The guy behind me offers to pay for my bill again. I don't know if it was out of frustration or out of pure shock that someone was willing to do that for me, but I let him pay. I thanked him a few times and went to get Truman and the groceries in the car.

I see the guy and his friends getting into his truck, with a boat attached to it. He drives over toward me and talks to me for a minute. He said that he knows that things "can get hard when you work" and try to take care of your family. He was happy to do that for me since he was on vacation. He also said "God Bless" before he left.

What this guy did for me amazed me to the point where I forgot about how mad I was at Brian for taking my debit card. I didn't even bring that up to him when I got home. I will never forget what this guy did for "saving" me that day. He is a modern day good samaritan and I wish for the day that I can find this guy and thank him once again for helping me.