During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, chaos seemed to be everywhere. There were shortages and long lines all over the place. Amid all this turmoil, I learned how a simple act of kindness led to an unexpected friendship and a valuable life lesson. Don’t understand what I mean? Keep reading.
The backstory
In February 2020, I quit my Transaction processing job and started doing food delivery full-time. I enjoyed the fast pace and the decent money.
Later that year, I became restless and felt I was missing working for someone else. So in December 2020, I took a ‘9 to 5’ job as a Retail Office Associate with a national furniture chain. The company shall remain nameless.
I thought when the year 2020 was over, the world would go back to normal; but it didn’t. Instead, there continued to be the same problems. Now there were issues with the supply chain; especially for stuff coming into the United States. Unfortunately, a large amount of the inventory for employer came from overseas, so the breakdown in the supply chain hit the store hard!
The store opened in January 2021. By the next month, we, office associates, received notifications that shipments were delayed. This was a pain because I, and the other office associates, had to let customers know. You can imagine the reactions we received.
Since people had paid for delivery in advance, there were a huge number of complaints. Customers accused us of taking their money, delivering only to store-financed customers, and holding their furniture hostage.
One man accused us not only of holding his furniture hostage, but also of using his delivery fee to pay our company’s bills—which wasn’t true. Every order was put into a queue, and customers would get their furniture when there was inventory to fill their order.
The day it happened
One day, a lady came in and wanted to check on her order. I brought up her account and found that an item in her order had been delayed. When I told her about it, she was not happy!
Like all the other customers, she gave me an earful. I could have said something, but I didn’t. I had learned to let folks vent, and then engage with them after they had finished yelling at me. Once she calmed down, I explained the issue.
After I explained everything, I could see she was not happy! She unloaded on me again. As I waited, I noticed something different. Her body language and emotions had changed. Something made me think she was holding something in, and it was stressing her out. She turned and started to walk away.
Something inside me made me go to her and ask her if she wanted to talk. At first, she didn’t say anything as I led her to a couch and asked her to sit down. When I asked again if she wanted to talk about what was stressing her, everything came flowing out.
It turned out she had a lot going on! Her husband was going through a health crisis, and she had just found out she had a medical issue too. Now, having one more thing to worry about caused her to lose it.
I felt so sorry for her. As we talked, she apologized. I told her I appreciated that and it was okay. It wasn’t a big deal. When she left that day, she seemed more relaxed—which was great!
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What happened after….
A few days later, I came back from lunch and found a little black and hot pink tote bag at the office counter for me. It was from the lady I had spoken to. I’ll call her Mrs. L.
Inside was a beautifully handmade scrapbook. There were pictures and Bible verses that expressed the meaning of kindness and a letter stating how thankful she was that I had taken the time to talk with her.
This blew my mind! I had never expected anything in return. Sitting down with her that day was something I felt I needed to do. In the letter, she asked me to call her, so I did.
During the phone call, I thanked her for the scrapbook and tote bag (which I still have and love), and we made plans to meet up a few days later for lunch. A few days later, we had lunch at a local restaurant near my work. While we talked, I learned we have so many things in common.
To this day, I’m thankful I had the idea to stop and take a moment to talk to her. I got to help someone and make a friend.
What I learned
I learned that it doesn’t take alot to be kind. It can be a word, or even a smile. Sometimes that can be the strength a person needs to get through their day.
You never know what could be going on in a person’s life. It could be falling apart, and that 1 ounce of caring could change their outlook on life and give that person the energy to hold on.
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The takeaway
Though the world may be chaotic, kindness can be like a life line to those who may be losing hope. We never know what is going on in another person’s life. A simple act of kindness could give that person the strength to continue the fight or lead to an unexpected friendship.
Just saying!
If you have any comments you’d like to share, please put them down in the comments section below. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you for everything!
