Norq From Ork

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day although I firmly believe it should be this every day. I love kindness; don’t we all?  and I was reminded of a random act of kindness shown to me a couple of summers ago.  Well, another one to be fair as I’ve been shown many acts of kindness over the years by many lovely people, like one example here Small acts of kindness. However,  this one has really stuck with me.

At the end of a day at work I’d gone into the local shop to buy tea. As what generally happens when I walk through the doors, I went into auto-pilot, mindlessly picking up this and that and opting for the easy tea option. Crusty bread, nice cheese, salad.  All stuff that a tired 40 something can slap onto a plate in seconds and shout ‘I made dinner!’ to the hungry mob and have them think I’m amazing.

  I put all the stuff through the checkout and chatted away to the man serving me, then went to pay. No purse.  Horror.

I nearly burst out crying there and then because  I was

a) Tired and looking forward to easy tea slapped on the plate type of night

b) Tired and annoyed with myself for forgetting that I hadn’t taken my purse with me that day.

c) Tired and going to have to put the chocolate back.  I honestly didn’t think I could do it  and the man on the till was going to have to prize it out of my hand with me sobbing hysterically and telling him I was a woman on the edge and I NEEDED IT!

There was nothing could be done.  My purse was lying at home 9 miles away and there wasn’t a chance I was going to drive an 18 mile round trip.  It was almost as bad as cooking, which was what I was going to have to do now thanks to my stupidity. More tears…..

I went back to my car with my non-shopping and choking back the tears, still gutted about leaving the chocolate behind and too tired to go home and make tea blah blah. As I was getting in a lady stopped me.  She opened her purse and took out £20.

 Having overheard briefly what happened and recognising my face from where I worked she was only too happy to lend me the money and trust that I would pay her back ‘anytime’.  I almost wanted to burst into tears all over again, but this time because I thought it the kindest thing.

I was reluctant at first but she was so insistent and so lovely.  She did it without even knowing my name and there was always the risk to her that I may not have paid the money back.  I did of course, the next day, but she wasn’t to know that at the time.

Anyway thanks to an amazing act of kindness from a stranger (now friend) I managed to produce tea in five minutes AND scarf down a much-needed bar of chocolate! and remember, it can be Random Acts of Kindness Day any day.  Try it.