I was in line at Aldi and this girl with two toddlers in front of me had her card declined and she looked so fucking sad and said “let me call my husband real quick” and it was only 18 dollars, so I just paid for it, and she was very sweet and then as she walked off, the lady behind me said `”You know that was probably a scam, right?” and like, even if it was, like what a sad fucking scam, right? 18 dollars at the Aldi. If you’re “scamming” me for some Tyson chicken and apple juice and cauliflower, then just take my fucking money.
“A scam” people are fucking wild.
This happened to me, too. A woman had used WIC for the majority of her stuff (which I say from personal experience is such a long and embarrassing process) and to buy the remainder of her groceries, which included diapers and wipes, she used a card, and it got declined. I bought the other $30 of her groceries because hey, I’ve been there, and now I’m not. She was extremely emotional and began to cry and even hugged me. My mom called me on the drive home and could tell I had been crying myself, asked what was wrong, and when I told her what happened, she berated me for being “duped.” I couldn’t believe she could be so disappointed in one of her children for doing something- nice? Is that the hill you want to die on? Getting mad about people needing groceries?
I once paid for a woman’s bill at the vet…it wasn’t a big one, but she was trying to pay for some medication for her dog, and her card was declined. And her lip started trembling, and she says “I don’t get paid until Tuesday, would he be ok until then?”
So I just told them to add the $20 something onto my bill, and I thought she was going to break down crying right there.
And I don’t care if it was a scam or not. Just do nice things for people sometimes.
Do good recklessly.
I think “Do good recklessly” would be fantastic word art to hang on one’s wall. Artistic people, go!
Story time. I had a sick kid who spent a lot of time in the NICU, in cardiologists offices, and in the ER. I also went into kidney failure shortly after giving birth and began growing weird lumps in places lumps shouldn’t be. At the end of the first two years we had mortgage style medical debt. It was also the perfect opportunity for the economy to freefall and we became a single income household for an uncomfortable period of time.
We may have been eating ramen and on-cor meals every night but I had far too much pride to ask for help.
That Christmas all of our holiday shopping was done at The Dollar Tree. The girls were given $10 to buy things for their favorite people and we made crafts to fill in the gaps. I didn’t want to steal their joy even though I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough gas to get to work the next week. To them ten dollars was $100… to me it was figuring out how to make the grocery budget stretch a little extra.
As we were about to checkout my oldest daughter walked up to me and handed me a stack of gift cards. Confused and concerned she may have pickpocketed someone (she could be shifty at that age) I asked her to tell me where she got them. She pointed to a lady fleeing out of the store and said “she told me to give these to you after she left. She asked me if you were a good mom. I told her you were and she gave me the whole pile”. Needless to say I spent the better part of the next thirty minutes ugly crying in the middle of the dollar store.
The cashier told me she would come in every few days during December and look for a family who seemed like they could use it. There was $300 in gift cards and that was just enough to get some bills caught up with a little extra to spoil the kids.
Be someone’s dollar tree lady and shame on anyone who tries to smother your compassion.
