I love that story! Thank you for sharing. Here's mine....

About 17-18 years ago (give or take a year or so) my husband and I found ourselves in severe financial trouble. We both worked decent paying jobs and were never really big spenders but due to an unexpected, and very large, medical expenditure it happened. We never told a soul, not one person, as we struggled. We got out of our mess within something like nine months by working OT, selling some of our adult 'toys' (small motorhome and jet skiis) and paying off the debt.

About four months into this we got a card in the mail with $300 in it. Neither of us recognized the writing or even where it was mailed from and, of course, no return address or signature. As I said, no one in either of our families or our friends knew what we were going through and to this day we still don't know where it came from.

We never did touch that money. The card, along with three $100 bills, is on our refrigerator door. We've moved twice since receiving it and it's always there were we can see it and be reminded of someone with a good heart who wanted to help. One of these days we'll play that forward.

Now we occasionally pay for an elderly couple's meal in a restaurant or if we see an older person putting something aside because they can't afford it we pay for it for that person. Something we also do every so often is to invite a single older person to join us at our table for a dinner out. So many people have so many wonderful stories to tell.

Here's another little story within that story....we invited one really elderly man to join us and he did. He appeared to have trouble talking and seemed to be really frail throughout our meal but when my husband went to pay the dinner tab he said clear as a bell, "absolutely not, dinner is on me". My husband argued with him and the man said "I have more money then you'll probably ever make in your lifetime so I'm paying". As we sat there stunned he started laughing, got up, did a fast walk over to the cashier, handed her cash and walked out. The cashier walked up to us as we were leaving and tried to give the change to us, which was quite a bit. We left it for our waitress which we think was his intention also. Neat, huh?

We're retired now and live on a fixed income but we can still afford to do these little acts of kindness. I really wish more people would do random acts of kindness, even if it's helping an elderly or disabled person with a door. Not just during the Christmas season when we hear so much about the good that some people do, but all year long.

Sometimes in this often messed up world that we live in doing something nice for someone else is the only thing that helps them get through their day.

Jenna

How lovely Katie...is it possible that he knows the work you do?

The other day I was at the library having some faxes sent. The cost came to 9.00 and they didn't take debit or credit .....and I had no cash on me.

The lady behind me , who looked as if $9 was a lot to her, said she would pay for it and she would not take no for an answer......I tried but she would not hear of it. She said it made her happy and that she was sure I would not want to deprive her of a small happiness. I went back yesterday and donated to the library.....

Not much but one of my happy things to do is pay for someone else's coffee.

Tim Horton's is a biggie coffee and doughnut place here in Canada...I mean really big.

Not that it's much but whenever I go through the drive thru...which admittedly is no more than 10-12 times a year .... I always pay the tab for the car behind me.

Sometimes it's a coffee and sometimes coffee for what must be the entire office...but usually just a few dollars.

It makes me smile all day to think of the the reaction of the person behind me when he/she is told the tab was paid.....because I think it makes them smile...and that makes me smile.

My son was just the recipient of a wonderful act of kindness. The other day he lost his wallet. He looked everywhere in his car, the house, his room, but came to the conclusion that he dropped it at the gas station. He went there (or called, I'm not sure which) and asked the clerk if she had seen it, but she hadn't. Then, a couple of days later he found the wallet in the mailbox, complete with all the cash, cards and license. Of course, he had already canceled all his cards and gotten a new DL, but it was a heartwarming event. To him, the $20 in his wallet was a lot of money, and it was still there.

Sally

What heart warming stories! Just yesterday my neighbor asked me if his friend could mow my yard and the guy said, "Merry Christmas!" So nice of them!

I am curious about his story, too. I am sure you will find the appropriate way to pay it forward.

I've done things like pay for someone ahead of me in line who was a couple dollars or cents short. I have to admit it was partly to keep the line moving!

Another time I had a strip of train tickets. The woman on front of me forgot her pass and was going to have to pay full fare for the entire length of the line. I gave her one of my tickets. Big deal.

What a nice experience for you!

What a nice thing to happen, Katie.

Sharon, I've also paid the bill of the person behind me, and done things like secretly pay the restaurant bill of the elderly lady counting her pennies.

I'd have been very happy to have that train ticket too.

I do things like donate to the food bank and the homeless shelter, but doing something for someone specific just seems more personal, somehow. My next door neighbor here just came with his snowblower and cleaned out my driveway and mail box, bless him for that. I definitely owe him some homemade bread or something!

Merry Christmas to us all.

Annie

These are great stories, thanks for sharing them.

Sharon, I doubt he knew what I do. I don't look much like a librarian, even in my go-to-town clothes, lol.

I've picked up the tab for a couple of dollar's worth of groceries when the person in front of me is short or had an anonymous latte sent to someone having a bad day. I often stop and let people out of parking lots when traffic is crazy... it always seems to result in instant karma. What goes around comes around. This was an odd one though. That fifty dollar bill's been paid forward a few times in my little town. Did wonders for my Christmas spirit. Maybe why the mystery man picked me, eh?

This past September I lost my wallet after paying for gas on the way home from the quilt retreat in the NC mountains. As you can guess, I was very upset and stressed because I not only had my own ID, debit, and credit cards, but I had a company credit card and around $200 in cash (I never carry that much cash). When I arrived back home, I immediately started calling to report the loss to the bank and to a co-worker in charge of company cards. This was Sunday evening and I finally calmed down and resolved myself to getting a new drivers' license, etc.

Monday morning at work, about 9:00 a.m. I received a call from a man who had found my wallet and wanted to return it to me! We made plans to meet after work in a nearby town. When I met him and his wife, he told me everything was in my wallet, nothing missing. I gratefully offered him a cash reward but he would not hear of it and refused the offer gently, but firmly. I was warmed to know there were still good, honest, and kind people still left in our world.

I have to say that this incident has made me more aware of ways I can go out of my way to show kindness to others.

Teresa

I saw an amazing act of random kindness while grocery shopping yesterday!

A young woman , maybe 25 or so, with two little kids , one of which was clearly not feeling well, didn't have the money to pay for all her groceries. She was so embarrassed and started removing things one by one from what she had bought.

A young man in line, who looked a tad rough I must admit, told her to put them all back and he would pay the difference.

She started to cry and the baby was crying and then the toddler started crying....... he turned to all of us in the line and asked us to help if we could....well the upshot was all her groceries were paid.
I may be wrong but I think that young man could not really afford to do what he did.......but he did.

Another time I may have viewed him differently...based on his looks....a very big lesson for me.