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Submitted by Sarah on Mon, 10/22/2007 - 5:35pm.
It is 3pm on a gorgeous autumn afternoon and there about 40 of us in this west side Oly Seamar medical clinic waiting room. We are all ages, several of us are using wheel chairs, and most of us look exhausted. There is a general air of shared good will, a few children are playing in the kids area, even when two stressed out women begin arguing loudly, we all seem to take it in stride. And the two women take it outside. The young man seated next to me is waiting for his friend. He and his friend are homeless. His friend has grand mal seizures and is out of medication. They have about $1.20 between them. A group of us offer ideas and the young man ends up with a job offer. The clinic is understandably running behind schedule so we all keep talking. I can summarize our conversation as "Most everyone is doing the best we can and times are tough.". Sharing our stories and troubles and successes seems to relax us all while pulling us together. His friend joins us in the waiting room and we are quiet for a moment as we get the visuals - we see how ill this young man is. The two of them load their back packs on and are out the door, but first the older woman seated next to me hands them some money. She says she doesn't have much but she needs to help. And then she comes up with some 2 for 1 burger coupons and one of us runs after the guys to give them this too. We tell her thank you, because really she has done this for all of us, including herself. I think about how much I have to be grateful for. I have a home, a phone, reasonable health, food, medical care. I am so fortunate. The afternoon continues, my checkup is routine, I'm soon on my way. I wish those two young men well. I hope the one gets his prescription filled soon. I hope the other stays clean, he says he has 90 days clean and sober under his belt. And I hope, I wish, everyone could be as fortunate as I.
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thanks for that, sarah.
Submitted by Sue on Mon, 10/22/2007 - 10:47pm.Good story Sarah
Submitted by Norm on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 1:46pm.Kind of sad, kind of heart-warming, very real.
Westside Burger King
Submitted by JstPlnOnry on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 2:11pm.My 18 yr. old and I were there one evening, and had just placed our order in the drive through and was starting to pull around to the window when she noticed a man of about 25-30 rummaging through the dumpster. It was cold and rainy and he had no coat and gloves full of holes. He'd pull his arms and head out of the dumpster every so often and shove cold food in his mouth. It broke my daughters heart to know somebody could be that hungry that they'd hang upside down in a dumpster digging for food. She works a minimum wage job just to have some spending money while she goes to college. She got out of the car and asked the man if he was hungry and he told her he hadn't eaten in days. She asked him what he'd like to eat and he said just a kids hamburger would be great and thanked her immensely.
As soon as we reached the window where you pay, she told the lady she needed to add 3 large size double whopper meals to her order. The girl at the register asked her how she could eat all that food. Kelly proceeded to tell her there was a man digging in their dumpster for food and she was ordering the 3 extra meals for him. The woman smiled, told Kelly to hang on and closed the window. When she returned with the bags of food, she only charged Kelly for 1 meal (mine) and gave her the other 4 (hers & 3 meals for the man) free of charge and she'd also thrown in some extra burgers, fries, and pies as well. She put her finger to her mouth, went "shhhhh, it's our little secret" and thanked us for choosing Burger King.
When we handed the man all the food he cried. As we left, we cried. Me, because of the unselfish gift my daughter gave and that she was willing to spend her last $25.00 on it and for the wonderful lesson she was a part of. Both of us cried because our hearts broke for that man and because we were so grateful to the cashier at Burger King who by all rights just risked a job she probably really needs.
It's the good hearted people we so rarely hear about who truly deserve the most recognition. I so badly wish I could have written the Burger King Corporation telling them what a wonderful employee they had but I couldn't risk her being fired for helping mankind.
"Do not mistake for conspiracy and intrigue what can best be explained by stupidity and incompetence." - Unknown
"It's the good hearted
Submitted by OperaGirl on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 2:53pm."It's the good hearted people we so rarely hear about who truly deserve the most recognition."
Could you imagine if the news on TV was full of these sorts of stories rather than what is there now? How many people would be inspired and challenged to get their "good deed" on the 11 o'clock news?
Kudos to you, your daughter and the BK worker for not looking the other way.
*I am that person who doesn't throw out rotting things because they're scary and who kills wasps by spraying things on them and screaming.*
What An Awesome World It Would Be!
Submitted by JstPlnOnry on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 3:12pm.Could you imagine if the news on TV was full of these sorts of stories rather than what is there now? How many people would be inspired and challenged to get their "good deed" on the 11 o'clock news?
I don't even watch the news anymore because it's so full of doom & gloom.
I live my life and have tried hard to educate my children to live in a "Pay It Forward" society!
WHAT IS “PAY IT FORWARD”?
“Pay It Forward” is a book written by Catherine Ryan Hyde, but it's also an idea. It's an action plan within a work of fiction. But does it have to be fiction? We're hoping not. In fact, since the book was released in January of 2000, a real-life social movement has emerged, not just in the U.S. but worldwide. What began as a work of fiction has already become much more.
Reuben St. Clair, the teacher and protagonist in the book “Pay It Forward,” starts a movement with this voluntary, extra-credit assignment: THINK OF AN IDEA FOR WORLD CHANGE, AND PUT IT INTO ACTION. Trevor, the 12-year-old hero of “Pay It Forward,” thinks of quite an idea. He describes it to his mother and teacher this way: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven." He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"
"Do not mistake for conspiracy and intrigue what can best be explained by stupidity and incompetence." - Unknown
Sounds like one of those creepy pyramid schemes!
Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 6:34pm.