A close to heart memoir from Sep' 2019

Another September just passed by, and it has been a year since I wanted to share about this incident. It was in 2019, September, when I met this amazing man!

I was out shopping to get a new shirt and had to hurry back home. After parking the car, I was walking fast to get to the store; that’s when I noticed a man holding the hands of a small boy and walking through the parking lot.

Both of them were wearing backpacks and seemed very tired. The boy had a small toy, and he was playing with it as he walked. The look in their eyes made me feel that they were having a hard time, and I asked whether I could help them in any way. The man told me that it would be great if I could buy some food for them. I was happy to help and requested them to walk with me to the restaurant near the store I had to visit.

The man told me that he is a carpenter, and both had been living with his mother but had to vacate for some reason. I asked about the boy’s mother, and he replied that she left them a couple of years back. I took them to a restaurant and requested the hostess to give them whatever they wanted. As I was in a hurry, I left my credit card with the hostess and told her that I would come back to collect the card in a while.

After I finished shopping, I went back to the restaurant. To my surprise, I couldn’t find the kid and his father. I walked back to the front desk and checked with the hostess, and she said that they left the restaurant just before I came. The hostess gave me my credit card and a bill for 12 dollars, and I was stunned to see that they bought only a sandwich! The hostess said that the man didn’t want to take advantage of me and bought just a sandwich for his son. Wow! I couldn’t believe what I heard. The man saw me leaving my credit card with the hostess. He could have ordered anything he wanted from the menu. But he just picked the lowest-priced sandwich on the menu and left without even buying food for himself.

For a minute, multiple faces crossed my mind: of people who make good money, who have all the luxuries, but compromise on the trust others had placed on them for small gains. Here stands a poor guy with his young son, starving and homeless, but tall among all of us to show what it means to honor the trust of others. It really touched my heart…. I think this man is a true inspiration and a person to look up to for many of us. He gently reminds us of the importance of honoring the trust others have put on us, every minute in our life, no matter what difficulties come across our way.