Cashier touched by kindness

I have been a cashier at Safeway for 25 years and was touched by what one of my customers did the other night. I rang through her order, gave her the change, thanked her and told her to have a nice night.

She waited for a moment at my checkout. Another customer with four children (one of them a special-needs child) was next in line. She went back for a second to return something to the shelf, in the meantime I had already rung her order up. The total was $12.43.

My first customer handed me a $20 bill and I asked, "What’s this for?" She smiled and said, "For hers..." meaning my next customer’s order. She paid for it without hesitation.

At first I thought they were friends and knew each other. When the other lady came back to my checkout she proceeded to tell me that she may not have enough to pay for what I had already rung up. I smiled and told her it was already paid for. She exclaimed "REALLY?" and could not believe it.

She tried to thank the lady for her generosity, but she had already left with a smile on her face.

She then told her special-needs daughter she did not have to worry, that she could have the medicine she needed.

I was truly touched by my customer’s act of kindness. The order was not expensive, but it was to the lady with four children.

I saw her again yesterday and she still shook her head in disbelief at what that lady had done for her. She said she’d had a bad week and that lady just made her night.

I sincerely hope that the generous customer will read this article and realize how many people she has touched by her act. Thank you for showing kindness. There needs to be more special people in the world like you. I also work with special-needs children at a school and what this lady did for a mother touched my heart.

— Jennifer Chudley