By Pat Brown
Contributing Writer
A trip to the grocery store is a necessity, a chore, an obligation. But the other day, my grocery shopping turned into a delight and a chance to hear an interesting story. It was an experience that renewed my faith in good people and reminded me to follow my intuition.
I was on line to pay—you know, the old-fashioned way by going through a check-out line with a conveyor belt and a human who uses a cash register to enter your purchases and provide you with a total.
The gentleman in front of me offered to let me go first since I had fewer groceries than he did.
I declined, saying “No thank you; I’m not in a hurry.” Just that second, I noticed he had bacon in his shopping cart, which reminded me that I had forgotten to pick up bacon for myself. I said so, and he promised to hold my place on line while I skittered to the back of the store.
By the time I got back, he had unloaded my cart on the conveyor belt and announced that he was going to pay for my groceries! Of course I refused, but he insisted. Then he told me why.
“My day started off terribly, but it turned into a great day,“ he said.
He explained.
Early that morning, he got a call from his mother. She lives on the West Coast and told him to sit down.
She said she had gotten a call from an employee of the sheriff’s office in the town where his son was in college. He told her that the son had been arrested for drunk driving after he hit the car of a pregnant woman. Her medical condition was unknown. The caller had urged her not to call her grandson, as he was humiliated.
The caller said she could bail the grandson out for $6,500.
The grandmother called her son (the man in the grocery store) who is the grandson’s father. He went immediately to the bank to withdraw the money.
“But it just didn’t feel right,” he told me, so he never wired a penny to the caller.
Instead, he called his son, who assured his father that he was fine, not drunk, and not involved in any car accident. He wasn’t at all in trouble with the police.
My benefactor’s hesitation, his hunch, and maybe his belief in his son, paid off. His son was fine and the father had saved $6,500 that day. He had smelled a scam and followed his intuition.
So he wanted to spread his good fortune, express his gratitude.
And there I was, a pound of bacon in my hand, my mouth agape with surprise—even shock—that I got to be part of the celebration of this family’s good luck.
You’ve heard of “share the wealth?” That’s what happened on an otherwise normal day at the grocery store. He shared his good fortune with me.
The bacon was delicious and the gesture of gratitude was an unexpected delight.
Thanks, Mister. If I knew your name, I would write you a thank-you note.
