While shopping at the grocery store, 32-year-old Kasey Simmons noticed an older woman standing in line looking sad and disengaged. Instead of ignoring her like the other shoppers, Simmons tried to cheer her up with light conversation. He even purchased the emotionally stressed woman’s groceries.
Simmons told CNN, “It was only $17, but it’s not about the money. It’s about showing someone you care.” He had no clue that the next day at his job at a Dallas-area Applebee’s, he’d see the money returned to him in another gesture of kindness.
After serving a woman a $0.37 flavored water, Simmons received a $500 tip! The woman wrote on a napkin to explain the tip that Simmons had helped her mother at the grocery store. She let him know that her mother had felt overcome with sadness on the third anniversary of her husband’s death.
The napkin read, “On one of the most depressing days of the year…you made my mother’s day wonderful. You insisted on paying. Told her she is a very beautiful woman. I have not seen this woman smile this much since Dad died.”
Simmons’s story shows how wonderfully generous people can be to one another, and all it takes is a bit of compassion.
