last night beth and i had dinner together to catch up (she is doing great on her path to recovery after chemo - go beth!). we talked about relationships, lots of aspects of our ties to cancer and how it affects our lives, general catch-up about friends in common, etc. as we ate most of our dinner, a college student sat at the table next to us and was studying while she was eating dinner solo.
when beth and i asked for our tab, our server told us that our tab for the night had been taken care of. of course, we were completely surprised and looked around the restaurant as we thought that maybe someone we knew had come in and we had not seem them. nope. our server told us that the girl who was sitting next to us at dinner came up to him and said that she as was sitting next to us, she thought that we seemed like very sweet people and she wanted to pick up our entire tab. we were so surprised, and our server said that it looked like we had been given a chance to pay it forward. clearly he was right.
that was the first time that anyone has ever picked up my tab in that way, i have never even had the person in front of me buy my tea at starbucks (like many of those great pay it forward stories that you hear about). beth and i don't know if she heard the specifics on what we were sharing about our lives and cancer, or if she just in general wanted to pick up dinner for two friends. whatever the reason, it was so nice and touched us both immensely.
it was a great reminder that this world is full of good and kind people who do amazing things each and every day for no other reason than being kind. that one action made our day.
i look forward to paying it forward and doing the same for someone else.
have a good weekend peeps, may it include a lot of kindness. xo
I had chills reading about that remarkable young lady paying it forward! So often all we hear is how the next generation is so selfish. I'm so glad you shared this. I had a similar experience at the hair salon when I was undergoing interferon and needed to cut my hair. Apparently the young lady sitting a couple chairs down from me overheard me telling my stylist about my cancer journey and when I went to pay I was told it was paid for. The girl wanted to remain anonymous but after much hounding the salon owner did eventually give me her name and address so I could send a thank you card. She wrote me back saying her family had also been touched by cancer and she felt it in her heart to do something kind.Her name was Jessica. Every time I go to get my hair done I think of her and if she might be sitting in a chair near me.
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