During the global health crisis, my boyfriend’s job goes fully remote (as many jobs did). One day, he’s presenting in a meeting when he sees that his grandma is calling him. He ignores it since he’s not just IN the meeting but leading it. His dad calls, and he ignores it. Then, his sister calls. She is a serial texter, and he doesn’t know the last time she called him.

Boyfriend: “I’m sorry. Can you excuse me for a minute? My phone has been blowing up and now my sister is calling me; I think there may be a family emergency going on.”

He quickly mutes his meeting and answers the phone.

Sister: “Where are you?”

Boyfriend: “Uh, at home? Working? Actually, in the middle of leading an important meeting?”

Sister: “So, just to confirm, you were not just in a car accident because you were driving drunk?”

Boyfriend: “What?!”

It turned out that his grandparents got a quintessential scam call: a “lawyer” was calling because [Boyfriend] “had been arrested and needed bail before they’d let him go to the hospital”. They had someone crying in the background pretending to be him; it was apparently pretty scary.

Luckily, his grandma was already skeptical because the person pretending to be [Boyfriend] said something about, “Dad is in a meeting so he can’t help me,” and [Boyfriend]’s dad had just been furloughed. As soon as his grandma said one of her sons was a lawyer, they hung up right away. They all were 99% sure it was a scam, but they couldn’t relax until they heard from [Boyfriend].

I’m a waiter at a small but high-end restaurant. A family has eaten quite an expensive meal, and they’ve all been very complimentary about my service, which I have to say, based on how we’re trained, is of a very high standard.

The family at the table has an old woman with them. She’s the matriarch and apparently mostly deaf, so the family has been ordering for her and keeping her happy.

The family pays the bill by card and chooses not to tip. Then, the old woman calls me over and takes my hand.

Old Lady: “And here, because you’ve been just so wonderful this evening!”

She proceeds to place into my hand… a quarter.

Old Lady: “Use it to buy yourself something nice!”

I really don’t know what to say, but I am saved by the customer who picked up the check for the whole table. He calls me over and speaks to me in a little whisper.

Customer: “Oh, that’s my grandmother. I don’t think she’s been aware of how much things really cost for decades, and at this point, the whole family feels it’s not worth telling her. She still thinks you can get a week’s worth of groceries for under twenty bucks.”

Me: “Oh, wow.”

Customer: “Anyway, thanks for a great service!”

The customer then went ahead and tipped me two hundred bucks! His grandmother waved to me and smiled genuinely as she was wheeled out of the restaurant, happy as a clam. 

I DID actually buy myself something nice!

An old man, probably in his late seventies, walks into the gym, asking about membership.

Me: “We offer a senior discount and an advice program for our senior members looking to improve their health both here and at home if you’d like.”

Customer: “How much do newborns weigh?”

Me: *Thrown a little* “Uh… six, or seven pounds, maybe?”

Customer: “Okay, let’s say eight. Start with giving me something that’s eight pounds, and I will carry it around for as long as I can, and we’ll start working up.”

Me: “I can help you with that. Can I ask what your health goal is?”

Customer: “When my daughter was born, I was working overseas on an oil tanker and I missed so much of her childhood. Now she’s pregnant, and I’m not making that same mistake twice! I’m going to carry my granddaughter around all day if I can help it! Now… where are the weights?

He was regularly carrying around a fifteen-pound weight by the time his granddaughter was born! I gave him a congratulatory message about his progress and he said, raising the weight above his head:

Customer: “Now I wish she was having twins!”

My great-grandfather Sylvester’s start to life was shaky at best. He was born at seven months gestation, and his mother did not survive the birth. According to family lore, they did not even realize she’d given birth until they went to remove her body and her premature son fell to the floor.

Sylvester’s father had older children from a prior marriage and did not have the time or the inclination to deal with a weak newborn. He sent Sylvester off to live with his maternal aunt, Liddy, who was unmarried and childless herself.

Liddy and Sylvester had a very close relationship but lived on a small farm in extreme poverty.

When Sylvester was nine years old, he decided he wanted to attend school. However, he was deeply embarrassed because all of the other children he saw wore shoes, and he had never owned a pair; Liddy simply could not afford them. His pride would not allow him to start his education barefoot, and he decided to earn the money for shoes himself.

He spent that summer working every day on a neighboring farm, running himself ragged at whatever the farmer requested, all with the motivation that, in the fall, he would be able to achieve his dream. But when the end of summer came, and Sylvester requested his wages, the farmer laughed in his face and told him to beat it.

That evening, as Sylvester was walking back to his Aunt Liddy’s, he couldn’t stop crying, and he was not a child that cried easily. Another neighbor came by in a buggy and immediately stopped, insisting that the boy tell him what was wrong. Through his tears, Sylvester explained the situation and the neighbor became enraged.

Neighbor: “Climb in. We’re getting your wages.”

What exactly the gentleman said to the dishonest farmer, there is no record of — only that he gave the man a tongue-lashing so spectacular that he paid Sylvester on the spot.

That fall, Sylvester proudly started first grade in his new shoes. He became an avid reader and became fascinated by electricity, ending up employed by one of the first power plants in the area. When promotions became available, he found more books and taught himself what he needed to know to advance in his career.

He met a young woman, got married, and fathered six children, the youngest of whom was my grandmother.

When my life becomes difficult, I think back to the tenacity of a little boy who wanted to learn to read and write and made it happen. I also think, gratefully, of the neighbor who stopped to comfort a crying child and took it upon himself to right an injustice. I would not exist if Sylvester had been less driven or the neighbor had been less kind. They are my heroes.

This story is reconstructed partly from my own memory and partly from my grandmother’s.

When I was around four, I was playing in our country house’s yard, and my grandmother was in our outdoor kitchen. Then, suddenly, I had the idea that I wanted to go to the shop for sausages.

Me: “Grandma, I’ll go and buy sausages.”

Grandma responded, thinking I was, you know, playing:

Grandma: “Yes, sure.”

I thought I was good to go, so I just went outside our place and headed down the road with a pink plastic Frisbee disc I was going to use as money. (Don’t ask.)

Now, to put it into perspective: it was 2001, and our country house was located in a little-developed district. That meant there was no electricity almost anywhere, only a couple of telephones within the nearest ten miles, terrible roads, very few neighbors, and lots of forest.

I passed the house of one of the neighbors and — THANK GOD — she was outside.

Neighbor: “Hi! Are you alone?”

Thinking I TOTALLY had Grandma’s permission, I replied:

Me: “Yes, I’m going to the shop to buy sausages.”

Neighbor: “Er, okay…”

As I later found out, she hurried to our house and told my grandparents where I was, and Grandpa was able to catch up with me only a hundred meters further down the road.

Now, that neighbor really, really saved my life that day, which I came to realize after I grew up. Because if she hadn’t seen me, I would have gone on and on and likely gotten lost in the fields and groves that started after the road’s end. Moreover, even had my Grandma realized quickly that I was THAT serious about going to the shop, she would have gone the wrong way to look for me because I didn’t turn right toward where the shops were, which I knew; I turned left! (Don’t ask.)

Obviously, I didn’t even have the time to get scared, so I mostly realized how dreadful the situation was long after it happened. Poor Grandma was absolutely terrified and still recounts it as one of the most nightmarish moments of her life.