My experience. I had read about people doing this but never experienced it myself. Then one day last year my son bought coffee for a police officer behind him at the Dunkin Donuts drive thru. It made my son happy and I’m sure the officer appreciated it. I was proud of my son for doing that, especially considering he didn’t have much of an income at the time. But it was just from the goodness of his heart.
Fast forward to March or April. I wasn’t feeling my best. I had just lost my mother after caring for her at home during a prolonged illness. I was nursing an injury myself. And I was experiencing some long, tough shifts in the Covid ICUs. I had to leave for work quite a bit early as we had to collect our PPE before the shift, lines were long for PPE and for things like elevators due to distancing, we had to figure out where we were assigned, and it took time to change, etc. Not normally wearing a surgical cap, I put mine on before I left home so I could make it look halfway decent.
So wearily, I was sitting in the drive thru line spacing out a bit when I went up to the window and the girl there told me the woman in the car in front of me had paid for my coffee. Darn, if I didn’t actually start to bawl right then and there (as I still get teary about it right now). Someone actually cared enough about me to do this (at a time I wasn’t feeling very cared about)! I know it’s just a small, random act of kindness, but to me, right then and there, at that moment, it meant the world to me. I wish I could’ve thanked her but she had driven away. And there was no one in line behind me then. But I’ve tried to pay it forward with little kindnesses to other people, such as buying homeless people I encounter a meal, or bringing something home cooked into a patient who has no visitors coming in, etc. I believe these little things are important in life and do more good than we realize. Sure, I still make donations to organizations, too, but the personal touch to these random acts of kindness can not be substituted. We never know who will appreciate it the most, but we can still try. Things are so tough in our world right now.
I read something the other day that described someone doing something nice for people who looked like they needed it. Not a bad idea, really. And thanks for the re-inspiration.