Now more than ever it’s vital that people make good on the saying “a little kindness goes a long way”.
After all, it’s impossible to know what sort of stresses or troubles people are going through in their daily lives, and, though you might not even be there to see it unfold, a simple compassionate gesture could be the difference between someone having a good day or not.
Just ask Jerina Edwards of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2016, Jerina was diagnosed with breast cancer, and so a few short months later – just before she was due to undergo surgery – the mom and her family went for a last meal.
They visited the East China Buffet on November 30, 2016, and it was there that Jerina would be moved to tears by a note handed to her by a waitress …
Posted by Jerina Edwards on Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Little did Jerina and her family know that someone had been watching them when they entered the restaurant; someone who had no intention of ignoring the fact that Jerina had lost all of her hair.
When the family asked for the bill, they were left stunned when the waitress told them: “Your meal has been covered.”
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Posted by Jerina Edwards on Wednesday, October 4, 2017
The same waitress then passed the check, only for them to see a message on it from another customer.
The note read: “I lost my wife to cancer five years ago. I know how tough it can be going through this. Your meal is on me.”
I, for one, if faced with a devastating medical diagnosis, would not handle it well. I'm one of those who would lie in…
Posted by Love What Matters on Friday, May 12, 2017
According to reports, Edwards herself believes the man realized she had cancer after seeing her head. In a bid to thank the kindhearted stranger, Edwards took a picture of the note and posted it to her Facebook page.
Unsurprisingly, her bid to find this most generous of souls gained plenty of traction online. After her story was picked up by various media sources, the man saw it and called her himself.
Posted by Jerina Edwards on Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Edwards told ABC News that she learned the man’s wife had died on St. Patrick’s Day, 2012, of a rare bone cancer. He had three children who had been around the same age as Jerina’s when they lost their mother.
Edwards said: “He said, ‘I know how it is. It invades your whole life, especially around the holidays.’”
Posted by Jerina Edwards on Thursday, September 14, 2017
Suffice to say that though paying for the family’s meal wouldn’t cure Jerina’s cancer, nor make things much easier in the long run, it was still an extraordinarily loving gesture. Not only that, but it certainly impacted on Jerina’s way of thinking, and goes to show that sometimes the simplest things can be the most effective.
Well, this story certainly brought me to tears. Always remember to be nice to strangers; you never know what they’re going through in their lives.
Please SHARE this story to honor the compassion shown by this wonderful stranger to Jerina and her family.
