Mine might not seem like much to some but I am convinced that my guardian angel's name is Joe.
I used to sell copy paper and office supplies door to door for small businesses. It was a terrible company... I made zero money, my back account was probably in the hole at that time and here I am driving my car with no gas reimbursement. I was in "the field" having the worst day and then noticed that my gas light was on. I figured that I'd finish up my street, get gas and head home. As I'm thinking this I turned the corner and my car puttered to a stop. Awesome. I happened to be right outside a high school as kids were getting out and walking home. Fighting back tears of anger, frustration and embarrassment, I asked this kid where to get gas and then I started walking. In the wrong direction. For about a mile and a half. I stop in a dry cleaners and this nice woman tells me she'll just drive me to the gas station. When we got there, to use their gas can, I had to pay a refundable fee of $10 in cash. All I had were checks (who uses checks anymore?) and my debit card. Overhearing this conversation, a man walks up, hands the attendant a bill and tells me to "fill it up" and walks out. I swear to you he was wearing a white shirt and drove away in a white car.
I filled up the can, the woman took me to my car and said goodbye and I go to return the can and get my gas with my debit card. The attendant holds up a $20 and tells me that he didn't mean "fill up your can," he meant "fill up your tank." (Keep in mind that this was a few years ago and you could still fill a tiny car for about that much.) I asked her who this man was, if he was a regular, if I could leave a card and money to pay him back. She says that she notices lots of regulars and he isn't one of them. She gets and idea to look at his receipt because he paid by credit card. I looked at his signature is disbelief with tears in my eyes. JOE. That was it. His kindness will never be forgotten.
7 comments:
Ooh, what a great story, I got chills! I'm so glad I found your blog too, I couldn't get to it from your profile, thanks for the link.
WOW - what an amazing story...I was just listening to that country song about the same type of thing, and the woman in the song is from St. Louis!
What a great topic! I followed the link and started reading the stories on that message board. It was addicting. And how cool is your story!!! It's nice to hear stories like yours. Thank you for sharing it!
I'll have to go back & check out that thread...
Cool story! Like Jenn, I thought of the Joe Nichols song.
Ditto, It reminds me of "Chain of Love" by Clay Walker. The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me is Sophomore year of college me and Kari went to Barry Rd to go shopping. On the way back to A-town on 59 I ran over something and the bottom of my car was hanging off scraping the ground. We couldn't get ahold of any of the roomates or Matt. Out of nowhere, this guy suddenly appears at my side and pulls this thing off the bottom of my car and then he was gone. We never saw him pull up or drive away. It still gives me chills to this day. On another note, did you sell office supplies for Quill?
I too got the chills. These moment of true, genuine kindness are becoming more rare. What a beautiful story and experience to remember forever.
That's a great story because it seems like most people are complete jerks these days. It's good to know that some people are still courteous, even to strangers.
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