Kindness Month

Today, I received an email about December being a "Month of Kindness"  I've seen various calendars now, with each day of December being devoted to an act of kindness.

For December 10, one website asked that I "Fill out a survey at a store and complement an employee who was good to you".

I probably won't be in a store today, but I still want to blog about the kindness of an employee.

Today, one of my cousins is undergoing surgery for cancer, and my mind thought back to a special day back in 2014.

  

On that day in 2014, I was shopping for a card for a friend who was about to undergo cancer surgery in the near future.   I  ended up seeing a ring, one that had the cancer loop on it. The employee asked if she could help me - I couldn't find it in my size.  I told the sales clerk about the woman who was going to undergo the surgery, and I burst out in tears.  Both of us ended up hugging and crying right in the middle of the store.  I don't know the name of this woman but knew just what to do at the emotional moment of a customer.

I don't know if I will ever meet her again.  I never have seen her again in that tore.  I hope she finds out, somehow, how much what she did meant to me. 

In November of 2010, I also experienced a random act of kindness in a local store, this time by a customer   Today, I wonder how the man in this story is doing.  Is he better off?  Despite what must have been hard times for him, he had such an upbeat attitude.

Here's some of the post I blogged about him from 2010:

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I saw something inspiring, as we get closer to the Thanksgiving season, this afternoon.

I had gotten out of work early for a couple of appointments.  After the appointments, spouse decided we should get our Thanksgiving turkey.  We did so, and then remembered that a nearby Aldi had good sales on fresh cranberries and also celery.

I don't know if you have an Aldi's where you live.  Aldi is actually a huge chain in Germany, with stores in various stores on the Continent and also in Great Britain.  In the United States, for some reason, they initially came in as a "bargain" store, with (in my opinion) dirty, ill lit stores.  I would not shop there for years.  The employees "did it all", the same people doing store cleanup, stocking, and cash register.

When my son took German in school, his teacher came in one day with an Aldi ad from Germany.  What a difference!  Aldi in Germany is almost like a combination grocery/department store.  But meanwhile, back in upstate NY...

Due to that ad, we gave them another shot.  'They had seriously upgraded the stores in the meantime, with better lighting and edible produce. So we do shop there (in 2019) all the time. You can't beat their prices, and they do have a number of really decent store brands.

Over the years, I have experience many kindnesses at Aldi.  This is just one of them.

We were getting ready to check out.  We only had three items.  The line was long, although the lines there tend to move quickly.  The person at the back of the line had an overflowing cart. "Here, go ahead of me."  The next person also let us in, and also let go ahead of him a person right behind us who had two items.  That man's clothes were a little dirty and he walked like he had a stiff leg, with a limp.

My spouse and I struck up a conversation with the man with the limp.  He had some extra money because he had sold two cars at auction today.  He had been up since 5 am.  It was a good day for him, because he was able to buy another car to fix up and sell.  Best of all, it was his birthday.  He couldn't see why he should spend $30. at Texas Roadhouse [a steakhouse chain in the U.S.] when he could buy some frozen steaks and cook him at home (we don't know if he had a loved one waiting for him.  I hope so).  He was so glad to be spared a few extra minutes on line, so he could get home and rest.

I hope the gentleman who gave up his place for a couple of tired near senior citizens and a man with a limp had a wonderful rest of the day, due to this random act of kindness.

Are you going to spread kindness in December, a time when so many of us are stressed and extra-stressed?  Or, would you like to comment about a kindness done to you?