Dear Reader:

Thursday morning I had a call from Brooke and she said that she had just experienced a wonderful random act of kindness that she wanted to tell me about. But it wasn’t just random…it was, also, intentional…and that made it even better!

Brooke had a dental appointment earlier in the week at MUSC in downtown Charleston. It was a long procedure and then, to top it off, the trip back from Charleston to Walterboro is a long one too. She started thinking about something she could pick up for her and her husband, Ted, to eat when she got home.

Then she remembered the Chic-Fil-A on Savannah Highway…the road she took to return to Walterboro. She would pick up a sandwich for both of them.

When she pulled into Chic-Fil-A parking lot it was packed…but the pick up window line was even longer. She sighed and found a parking place and walked in. After waiting awhile it was her turn at the counter and she placed the order.

The cashier gave Brooke her total and Brooke immediately started going through her cards to pull out her credit card. Murphy’s Law at its best (or worst) she found every card…but her credit card. Brooke felt her face turning red since she was holding up a very long, rather impatient line of people behind her.

Frantically she searched again…and then remembered she had left the card in the car earlier. Completely embarrassed by now…she told the young girl that she was sorry….just cancel the order…her credit card was somewhere else and not on her at the moment.

To make things worse…as she glanced around she recognized someone she knew…not well particularly…but enough so the thought of her standing behind her listening to the conversation turned her face red again.

All Brooke wanted to do was get out of there as fast as possible…but suddenly the young girl was waving her over to the side while someone else waited on the next customer. She assured Brooke this type of thing happened occasionally and that it was “okay…they had it.”

At first Brooke was puzzled and the girl repeated that she was to take her food order with her, don’t worry about it…they ‘had it’ and have a good day!

The story did make my day…and it made me want a Chic-Fil-A sandwich for lunch. I thanked Brooke for the story and told her I was going to give  Chic-Fil-A my business as soon as I hung up because of her story.

I drove around our Summerville Chic-Fil-A and gave a young girl my order. I then told her quickly why I had chosen them for lunch Thursday. “I am going to tell this story to my manager” she remarked excitedly.

By the time I got to the window she must have told the manager the story (over the walkie-talkie)…because when I went to hand over some cash….I was told to keep it… the employee said that the manager said to tell me he loves a good story. I owe you one Brooke! The power of a story….it will get you a free chic-fil-a sandwich…and drink!

So until tomorrow…”You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I ate my sandwich on the way to Mt. Pleasant where I was spending the night so I could attend the Grandparents Breakfast with Eva Cate at her school. Eva Cate’s best friend, Lily’s grandmother, Lori, lives right up the street from John and Mandy so she picked Eva Cate and myself up for the breakfast.

It ended up with over 400 grandparents showing up so things got a little chaotic…but having more than less is always a good thing with parent and grandparent participation in schools. Lori and I had fun, got our pictures made with our grand-daughters, got to meet their teacher and got a pretty card from each girl. But mainly we showed up…and isn’t that the most important thing in life? Showing up?