They say that you truly never know what is going on in someone's life - whether that person is a stranger or a loved one - and the following story highlights why we need to lead our lives with kindness and compassion accordingly.
Blogger Andrea at True Stories of a Mid-West Yankee has given the internet much food for thought recently, after writing an open letter to 'the woman behind me in line at the grocery store'.
In the piece, Andrea explains how her young family struggled to survive after her husband was let go from his long-term managerial job. Their house had come with the job in question, so they essentially had to start all over again in a new state.
Andrea's husband struggled to get full-time work, and he took on a part-time position to keep things going at home. With young children to feed, the family availed of the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme) scheme, whereby they received food aid from the government.
It was during a visit to the grocery store, when her children were hungry that Andrea found herself in an embarrassing and worrying situation - the Electronic Benefit Transfer machine was not working, and she had no money with which to buy the much-needed groceries.
This is when the wonderful lady behind her in the queue stepped up and footed the $17.38 bill.
"That $17.38 may not have been a lot for you, but it was priceless to us. In the car my kids couldn’t stop gushing about you; our 'angel in disguise.' They prayed for you. They prayed you would be blessed. You restored some of our lost faith," wrote Andrea, in a blog post.
She added: "One simple and small action changed our lives. You probably have forgotten about us by now, but we haven’t forgotten about you. You will forever be a part of us even though we don’t even know your name.
Andrea went on to thank the woman not just for helping her and her family when they needed it the most, but for not judging them in the process.
As you can see from Andrea's blog post (link to full post here), her husband has since found full-time employment. She will, however, never forget that woman's amazing gesture.
