In a day I saw two great acts of kindness that profoundly touched my day. And it's just half past four in the afternoon. At the cash register the man before me had paid his bill in full and held a bag full of groceries while exiting the store. He dropped it.. Apparently there were also some contents in glass bottles in the bag. The cashier immediately took some plastic bags and whipped out of her seat. All the while the man appeared to be in a state of despair while repeating the same sentence " plastic bags are good for nothing", staring desperately at his groceries, which lay at his feet.
She helped him bag his groceries and noticed that nothing was broken and told him so. I was the client next in line and she had already swiped my membership card before she knelt down and helped the man. He stood there with his big back facing me. He was an elderly gentleman, with a rustic exterior and a good measure of burly. He put his groceries in order and left the store with (almost) all his groceries intact.There was my neighbor behind me with her husband. We patiently waited. "The cashier, that lady is a problem solver and she deserves a medal", I thought.
The cashier came back to her station and asked me if I wanted a bag. I had a big sturdy bag with me, as I have most of the time when I go for my grocery run, therefore I politely declined. I bagged my groceries and paid. I went out and at the small road, a shortcut that lies between the city center and the big chain supermarket is, I stopped. The thought of my neighbors, the elderly couple, who were behind me at the cash register, stopped me in my tracks. They were an elderly couple with whom I had interacted so far by exchanging greetings and one long conversation, by the fact that we live in the same building and roof repairs needed to be done. I thought of my elderly grandparents and waited till they came out to give them a hand with some of their grocery bags as they could be on foot as I was. There was one woman who came out and I waited.
The distance between me and the entrance of the supermarket was a good forty meters at least. So it was not easy to distinguish the human figures from a far. Finally they came out. Both a bit pudgy and walking slowly while pushing a cart full of groceries. He came out first and started to pick up and rearrange the groceries in his cart. Mind you, I didn't know if they had a car or a way to sustainably transport those many kilos of groceries to their home, which is next to mine. We live in the same building, just with a different entrance as different entryways and staircases carry their tenants up to their homes all around the building. Think surround sound but in a building constructed during the medieval times with its uneven bricks and somewhat weathered exterior.
My neighbor, the Mrs, came out too and started to sort too. A woman in a pink sweater came up to them, seemingly chatting but also offering them help. My neighbor loudly refused " Per carita!". For pity's shake, no! She is a neighbor with whom I have interacted in the past during the summer of last year 2020, a few months after the lockdown. She at a certain point during our discussion on the works to be done on the roof, came close to me and looked me in the eye while putting her hand on my arm to convince me of the point she was making. This time in the supermarket before eventually going to the cash register more or less at the same time, she saw me at the supermarket about to start my shopping of the few things I needed. She had put a hand behind my back and patted me while greeting me. This warm greeting took me by suprise.
This was the same woman who was protesting and didn't want help from the woman, who they apparently knew. Her elderly husband loaded a grocery bag on the bicycle ( I have often seen him with). The bike stood on the side of the road where they also parked the cart. The woman in the pink sweater after the protest of the other, went away, walked away toddling and presumably went to her car. A black car stopped at a certain point in front of this couple and it seemed that they were holding up traffic as they were across from the entrance of this big chain supermarket that had less than a hundred parking spots. All cars must pass by this direction to get out of the parking lot. The woman in pink came out and took a big white bag from the couple and put it away on the backseat of her car. Subsequently she said loudly that she has one bag and will drop it off at their home. It is no bother at all.
I smiled within myself and thought how wonderful the world is. It didn't matter that they were elderly or that the young woman in pink was walking with a limp. All that mattered were swift decisions in deciding to act with kindness.