A Helping Hand Is On The Menu

This is few years ago when I am a struggling college student. I work 40 hours a week at a coffee shop and take nine units in school, all I can manage with my workload, I also spend three nights a week at my grandmother’s house 40 miles away because she has dementia and we don’t want to put her in a home.

My work schedule is Sunday-Thursday with school Monday-Wednesday. I get off work on Thursday and drive straight to my grandmother’s to relieve my mother. I then stay with my grandmother Thursday – Sunday, going home Sunday morning to close my store.

In the same shopping center as my work is a Turkish restaurant that I go to whenever I have a little bit of extra money, for a treat. The owner is also a regular of the coffee shop where I work. One day he asks me about the change in my schedule, because before I started taking care of my grandmother I always worked Friday nights. I tell him about my grandmother and that I have to leave right after work on Thursdays.

For the next six months while I took care of my grandmother he or his wife always stopped by on Thursday with dinner for me and would refuse payment. If I tried to pay while they weren’t at the restaurant the money would wind up with the food the next week. Not only were they providing me with food, most of it was things that weren’t on the menu and that they had made special for me. It was the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me and became a bright spot in my otherwise hectic week.