(Today is Thanksgiving. Some stores close for Thanksgiving, like the convenience store down the road, but our store is open from 7 am – 10 pm. The phone rings and I answer it.)

Me: “[Store], this is [My Name]; how can I help you?”

Customer: “Hi, I was just calling to ask what time y’all are open until today?”

Me: “We are open until our normal time, 10 pm.”

Customer: “Wow, really?!”

Me: “Yes, ma’am!”

Customer: “Well, this is [Customer]; I live across the road from your store, and I was just wondering how many of you are working today?”

Me: “Well…” *hesitating, not sure how EXACTLY to answer as this question is a little out of left field*

Customer: “I am asking because I’d like to fix y’all a plate of Thanksgiving dinner to thank you for working today.”

Me: “Oh! Well, thank you, that’s very kind of you, but you don’t have to do that! That isn’t necessary, though the thought is appreciated.”

Customer: “You sure? I really don’t mind, since you have to work! What time do you get off?”

Me: “My cashier and I both get off at three, and that’s when the next shift will come in.”

Customer: “Oh, you get off at three? That stinks. Well, thank you for working today, and have a happy Thanksgiving!”

(I was so shocked and happy the rest of my shift. That someone would want to do that for us to thank us for working today, and show how appreciative they are for us working, was just more than I could have expected!)

(I’m at a comic convention where I have been hanging out with both good friends and casual acquaintances. I bought the train tickets back home beforehand but pretty much everyone I know begins to leave over an hour before my train does. I’m tired after the three convention days and since during this time I am still living in a small village, these events were pretty much the only time I got social. I’m talking with this guy who I’ve met only a few times, always at conventions, so we don’t know each other that well. He and his girlfriend have just talked about leaving themselves.)

Me: “You guys are leaving, too?”

Guy: “Yep. Better do it just before the con ends so that you don’t get stuck in the human mass.”

Me: “That seems to be the tactic for everyone I know here. I’ve still got an hour and a half before my train leaves and I have no idea what to do with that time. And I’ve got a train switch that’s over half an hour.”

Guy: “Where do you need to switch?”

Me: “[City].”

Guy: “Hey, that’s where [Girlfriend]’s parents live! Right next to the train station, too. We’re actually going to drive to their place straight from here and there’s room in the car. Just hop in and come with us. We’ll keep you company until your train leaves.”

(I was so stunned that someone who, at the time, was a casual friend I saw maybe twice a year would not only offer me a ride, but also invite me to hang out with him, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s parents, just so I wouldn’t need to be lonely. It’s been several years now and today he’s one of my closest friends.)

When I was in my twenties I decided to go back to school. After making a mess of my life and dropping out of high school then bouncing around jobs, I decided to see how it would go if I took some more automotive classes.I suspected it might be something I could turn into a career, though of course the idea of being a student again was intimidating and a little terrifying, and I also had some concerns about fitting in as a woman in a male-dominated industry. On the first night of class I got to campus over a half hour early to make sure I could find parking and, of course, it didn’t help. I circled and circled, getting increasingly stressed and desperate.

Class started at six pm and it was 5:56 pm and I still didn’t have a spot. I was literally crying in my car telling myself that this was a sign from the universe that going back to school was the wrong choice. I decided if I didn’t find parking in the next two minutes I would leave, drive home, drop my classes, and just fake my way through whatever else happened and wherever life took me and that would be the end of going back to school.

Just as I made this mental deal with myself, a car pulled out of a spot directly in front of me. I parked, wiped my face, gathered my supplies, and went inside to class. My butt was in the seat about ten seconds before six pm.

I’ll never know who it was, but I often think of the guy who pulled out of the parking spot right in front of me and wish I could tell him: thank you. THANK YOU. That class went well, and so did the next ones, and the ones after, and the job I got next, and the one after, and this year I was hired and started to teach part-time in the very same program I attended.

If that guy hadn’t left his parking spot when he did, this would not have happened. There’s no way for him to ever find out, but he gave me a life I never would’ve imagined when I was crying in my car that night.

(I’m working the register at my home pharmacy. A man asks to pick up his prescriptions, and some for his wife. I take the necessary information, and grab hers at the same time as his. Note: she has around a half dozen prescriptions, some in large bags.)

Customer #1: *seeing me with several bags* “Oh, dear, that’s more than I thought.”

Me: “It’s all right; some are just larger than others.”

(I ring up the total for the prescriptions; it’s about $15 dollars. As I’m relating the price to him, he searchers his pockets for extra cash.)

Customer #1: *clearly embarrassed* “I’m sorry, but I only have $5.”

Me: “That’s okay; we can hold your wife’s prescriptions for the next two weeks. At least her painkillers have no co-pay, so you can take these home for her right now.”

(At this point, the customer at the till next to mine looks over.)

Customer #2: “Excuse me, but how much are your co-pays?”

Customer #1: “Oh, it’s OK, really.”

Customer #2: “Are they more than $20?” *he already has a 20 dollar bill in his hand*

Me: “It’s about $15.”

Customer #1: “Really, you don’t need to do that.”

Customer #2: “Well, I’ll just take the change then, and you trade me the $5.”

Customer #1: *looks about ready to cry* “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”

Customer #2: “My wife has cancer. If someone hadn’t helped us out at one point or another, we wouldn’t have her medication. Is her insurance [Insurance Company]?”

(The second customer then tells the first how to get co-pay booklets, to help with the cost of co-pays, so he can get the prescriptions cheaper in the future. I hand the change back to the second customer as promised, and the prescriptions to the first customer.)

Customer #1: *shakes the hand of the other customer* “Thank you, sir. You’ve made my Christmas.”

(I’m travelling to visit my family for some much needed recuperation, after being quite unwell for several weeks. It’s a long day, it’s mid-November, the train is delayed, and I only have a yogurt for dinner. The refreshment cart and its handler are passing through.)

Me: “Excuse me; do you happen to have a plastic spoon?”

Cashier: *checks the cart* “Nope. Doesn’t look like it. What are you eating?”

Me: “Yogurt.”

Cashier: “Oh. That’s too bad. I’d have given you two stirrers to use like chopsticks.”

Me: “I’d have taken that, too!”

(The cashier laughed and went off. I settled back to my seat, and about a minute later he showed up with something wrapped in a napkin.)

Cashier: “Now, you can have this if you promise to give it back to the kitchen when you’ve finished.”

(He got me a spoon! It’s such a small gesture, but it meant a lot after the few weeks I’ve had. The kicker? I was reading Not Always Hopeless during this story…)