A couple days ago Mike and I were at, you guessed it, Target. We walked in behind an older gentleman. From looking at him I made a quick decision about him - he was a cranky old man who seemed to be beaten down by the world.
We did our shopping and got in line. Guess who was in front of us? The old man. In front of him was a dad and his two young daughters. The girls were around 7-9 years old. The oldest one bought something first and paid with her own money. The old man was standing there watching them and smiling. The youngest girl was SO excited about her purchase, anyone could see it in her eyes and by the smile on her face. She took her crumpled $11.00 out of her little purse and set it on the counter before she even saw her total...smiling the whole time. The cashier said "that will be $12.01." You could see slight panic on the little girl's face. She was $1.01 short.
The youngest girl was trying to get her dad's attention, "dad, dad....". He was busy talking to the older girl and didn't realize what was going on. The old man already had his wallet in hand, ready to pay for his purchase. He saw the frightened little girl trying to get her dad's attention to get a dollar from him. The old man dug deep into his pockets and pulled out a penny and gave it to the little girl. Then he opened up his wallet to pull out a dollar to give to her. The dad finally realized what was going on. He told the old man "thank you," (for the gesture) but pulled a dollar out of his wallet and gave it to his daughter.
The old man couldn't stop smiling. He said something like, "Oh, I thought I'd do a good deed today. You know, some people still do things like that." Then he went on to tell the dad, "I have a granddaughter who is 4 and I spoil her as much as I can, and I just thought, 'it's only a dollar'." Once again, the dad thanked the old man, and they went on their way. The old man was still smiling.
Mike turned to me with a smile on his face and whispered, "awwww, did you just see that?" I saw it all too well. I was smiling as I nodded my head, but was holding back tears. It was so sweet. So genuine. So nice. So heart-warming. So unheard of these days. It made me wish that times were simple again. It made me wish that MORE people were STILL like that.
I also must say I was also quickly put in my place about the opinion I formed about him. We all make mistakes, right? :)
I hope you all are having a FANTASTIC week!
JANET! :)
3 comments:
Janet,
This is an inspirational blog and I loved reading your thoughts. Great to catch up with you. I subscribed to your blog; so, I look forward to hearing more from you.
Love,
Rhonda
This is a nice post. A heartwarming story. Unfortunately, in this cynical age, most people might assume the old man to be a pedophile for interacting with the girl that way. I wonder how many people don't do things like what that old man did, for fear of being misconstrued?
Tim, I understand what you mean...you never can be too cautious these days. Have you decided if you're going to get an account? You should.
Rhonda, thank you! I enjoy blogging, it's one of my NEW favorite things to do. YAY. Thanks for subscribing! :)
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