Full Carts And Full Hearts

(My mom volunteers to collect food for a national charity. She is at the entrance of a local supermarket handing out papers asking people for food to be offered to people with low income during winter, and collecting whatever customers are willing to give away to them. Most customers either give away canned food, or just ignore them.)

Child: *to his dad* “Daddy, what’s this? *points at my mom*

Customer: “Shush! That’s for tramps and hobos, ignore them!” *pulls him in the store*

(My mom and the other volunteers are a bit taken aback, but they don’t think anything of it and the day continues. In the middle of the afternoon, an old lady pays for her purchases, and notices my mom and the charity collection.)

Old Lady: “Oh.”

(My mom watches as she slowly makes her way out into the parking lot with a small bag of purchases in one hand and her cane in the other. My mom then goes back to handing out paper and collecting food. A few hours later, my mom notices the same old lady, slowly making her way back into the store, this time with a shopping cart.)

Old Lady: “Thank you.” *takes paper and goes back in browsing shelves*

(One whole hour later, she goes to the cash register for her new purchases, struggling to push her shopping cart full of groceries. She pays, slowly pushes her full shopping cart towards my mom, and stops it at the charity’s stand.)

Old Lady: “Here you go.”

(The charity volunteers all thanked her a lot. Turns out that, despite her age and the fact she didn’t own a car, she did her best walking back home to put her groceries to her fridge, and walked back to the store only to donate a cart full of groceries for charity. One of the volunteers offered her a ride home, which she said she didn’t need. Thank you, unknown lady.)