Joke and Great Kindness

I'm a cashier at a grocery store who's close to graduating university, or at least I was. I was still living with my parents in my last year of school when everything started falling apart around me.

My mom had cancer a few years back and went through chemo and the whole shebang. We thought it had worked and she was in remission until one day she slipped into a coma and wouldn't wake up. When we brought her to the hospital we learned that it hadn't worked and it had actually been eating her insides for year and the doctors had missed it.

My family had always lived hand to mouth but the hospital costs while she was passing pushed us past our breaking point and we ended up getting evicted. Thankfully my friend was willing to take me in to his small apartment while I looked for someplace more permanent.

I had a lot of trouble finding a place that I could afford on part time wages so I had to pick up full time hours to give myself a chance which meant dropping out of the term at school. Still even with full time at a grocery store I couldn't find a place I could afford if I wanted to occasionally eat.

It was about two weeks after my mom passed that it all ended up going down. Things were getting stressed between me and my friend(It was a small place and they were used to living alone). I was just getting off of working overtime on our busiest day of the month. We were a little slow at the moment so a couple of the younger girls were joking around.

They waved and said they'd see me next week. I smiled and said, "Yeah we'll see. I might be livin on the street by then."

This was only meant to be a joke, not even a very good one. My mind was elsewhere and spent after work so I wasn't even thinking about what I was saying. Still one of the girls gave me such a look of concern and asked if everything was okay. Guess she must have picked up I was a little worried about it.

Now this girl wasn't a work friend or anything at the point. She was just one of the high school girls I saw maybe once a week when she had a shift. I didn't even know her name at the time she was just the one with the funny colored hair (purple and green at the time). I'd actually talked to her like once.

Anyway since she'd asked I explained I'd just been joking. She gave me another look and asked if I was sure. I didn't want to be the person venting to a random high school kid but something about how earnest she seemed made me not want to lie to her either. I decide to just gloss over I was having a hard time finding a place but it was no biggy. She didn't seem exactly contented with my explanation but she let me go to punch out.

It was as I was heading out the door she comes up and with a smile on her face says her mom is looking to rent out a room. She gives me her number and says to text her after she gets off so we can talk more about it.

It's six months later and I'm back on my feet though still staying with them. I consider the funny colored hair girl to be like a little sister and my best friend now.

Thank you for your act of kindness to a near stranger Kool-aid hair.

Submitted by Anonymous

Helping Others