Random Act of Kindness
Every Monday afternoon is the same old thing. I pick up Eddie from school and we head off to his occupational therapy appointment. I sit for an hour with my thoughts and watch people as they walk by--sometimes they go into that crazy pilates room. Then Eddie comes out and we negotiate where dinner will be picked up on the way home.
This fine evening, as we were driving down 9th St., I swore that there was more traffic than normal and it seemed like it was going to take forever to pick up some food. We pulled into McDonald's and found our way into the drive-thru line. The speaker asked me what he could get me...Two Happy Meals both with chicken nuggets, fries and chocolate milk...no sauce...one girl, one boy...that's it--Thanks. That'll be $9.22, please pull around to the first window. Same ol' same ol'.
I pulled up to the first window and went to hand my debit card to the young window cashier and he smiled at me and said..."The woman ahead of you wanted me to say she hopes you have a Merry Christmas and that your order is on her."
After waving to the woman and thanking her for dinner, I turned around to face Eddie and smiled at him. He was amazed that someone randomly did something so nice for a complete stranger. He asked me "Why did she do that?" I explained to him that she did something called "Pay it forward" and that it was now our turn to do something nice for someone else. He's pretty excited that we will get to randomly make someone's day like the nice woman who happened to be in front of us in line. I'm more thrilled that Eddie experienced this random act of kindness himself and I hope he remembers it for a long time and that it will guide him to help make happy memories for others in the future.
