A while back I told you about losing my purse and having it returned with everything intact. I considered it a wonderful random act of kindness, that someone would help me in this way.
There are many other random acts of kindness, like buying food for the person behind you in the drive-thru and buying pizza. What do I mean by this pizza thing?
My story began at a local restaurant which serves pizza in a large outdoor setting. We arrived late on a Friday night, the band was playing and there were more than 100 people there. We were with other members of our family and ordered a large pizza. All of us were already hungry because it was at least 8 p.m. Because there was nowhere to sit, we stood around the bar and waited and waited. After an hour, we thought the order surely must’ve been lost. Just then it arrived and simultaneously a table became available.
One of the members of our family, who shall be nameless at this point, grabbed the pizza which was on a little stand and started toward the table. We were all hungry. The pizza smelled so good, even from several feet away.
Then it happened. For just one minute he wasn’t looking at the pizza or he tripped or something and two thirds of the long-awaited pizza slid on to the concrete floor. Yes, we were all upset and couldn’t even believe this happened. Some of us took the top off the pizza pieces which had been on the ground face up, and a few of us ate the pieces that were left on the stand on the table.
It’s one of those instances where you know the person didn’t do it on purpose, but you really wish they hadn’t dropped it. There were some groans and oh no’s as we ate what was left.
The two couples sitting at the table next to us and saw what had happened. They obviously were wonderful people and offered us the rest of their pizza, saying they were not going to eat it anyway.
We said, “Oh, no thank you, we can’t take your pizza.” I’m thinking it’s probably better for me personally, if I don’t eat any pizza. However, after eating the two pieces, I was still quite hungry.
The people next to us said they felt so sorry for what happened and we continued to say, “No thank you,” to them. A few minutes later a server arrived and asked us what exactly was on that pizza, since she hadn’t taken the order in the beginning. We had placed the order at the bar. We told her what was on it and she said, “I’ll be back, don’t leave.”
When she returned a few moments later, she told us another pizza was on the way. What do you mean? We couldn’t understand what was going on. She was unable to tell us who bought the pizza. So now we thought we were in for another hour wait. But quickly there was a new pizza in front of us, the same as we had originally ordered, delivered by the server, who obviously knew how to deliver without dropping!
We realized those next to us must have purchased this pizza. It was a large one with several toppings on it. It was quite a financial investment and we didn’t even know these people. We looked over and thanked them profusely but they continued to deny they had purchased it. But we knew in our hearts that’s where it came from.
There are small acts of random kindness and there are very big ones. We considered this one particularly kind and were quite grateful. We don’t know the people. We don’t know if they live in Marysville or anything about them, but we thanked them.
Bring joy to someone with your own random act of kindness. Do something nice whenever you have the opportunity. I urge you to do just some small thing for someone who needs help in some way, maybe someone you don’t even know.
(Melanie Behrens – melb@marysvillejt.com)
Wednesday, January 19
