Heartfelt gift humbles recipient

I was rereading some of the blogs in the Fort Scott Tribune. One I reread was about Katie Hueston who told about the lady behind her in the checkout line at the grocery store. She, without Katie knowing it, paid the cashier the dollar that she was short and how much Katie appreciated this kindness.

Yesterday I had to go to Marshfield, Wis., about 20 miles from where we live, to run a few errands.

On my way to Marshfield I stopped at Bethel Nursing Home to drop off some birthday cards for the patients. I belong to the Legion Auxiliary and one of our projects is to send birthday cards each month, so I just dropped them off on the way.

My next stop was at the Marshfield Clinic to order a prescription at their pharmacy. I asked the lady how long it would take. She informed me about 20 minutes, so I decided to sit and wait. As I sat there, I thought to myself if I wasn't sick when I came in I surely would be after I left. Just about every other person had on a mask and all of them were coughing. Was it the H1N1 flu? Who knows, but I could hardly wait to get out of there. Instead of 20 minutes, it was 40 before my prescription was ready. I felt sorry for the people filling the prescriptions, they were so busy and everyone was coughing.

From there I stopped at another drug store to pick up a few items. Then I was on my way to Melody Gardens. A café that caters to seniors, my kind of a place. One of their specialties is sausage gravy and biscuits, with a side order of hash browns. The waitress immediately brought me a steaming cup of coffee, which really hit the spot.

I am a people watcher and while I was waiting for my order I began to look around to see what was going on. I was sitting in a booth and right in front of me was an elderly man who looked disabled, who I began to observe. He was by himself and seemed to be having a very leisurely breakfast. As he finished he had a terrible time getting out of the booth, he had a cane and had a time maneuvering around. He reached over to pick up his coat and began to put it on. Evidently his arms were stiff ( I can relate to that) and he just couldn't seem to get his arm in the sleeve, so I jumped up and helped him put it on, and told him not to forget his gloves. (It was like I was talking to Bob.)

By then my breakfast had arrived and I sat down and had a very enjoyable brunch. Every morsel was a delight, and of course I consumed several cups of coffee. I had just finished and sat back to enjoy the remainder of my coffee when a lady (elderly of course) stopped at my table and asked if she could sit down, I was delighted to have someone to visit with.

She said she had something to give me, then she proceeded to hand me a package of homemade greeting cards. She said she had made them, that she loved to take pictures and then make them into cards. They were truly lovely. I asked her how much she wanted for them and she said, "I don't want anything for them, they are a gift."

She then explained that she had watched me helping the man on with his coat and thought she would like to give them to me. I was truly humbled that she would do this.

If each and every one of us did just one good deed a day, can you imagine how people's lives would be changed.