Wide Open Wallet: Random Act of Kindness

A perfect stranger gave me $100 yesterday. It’s true. I was totally blown away and I am very motivated to pay it forward. What’s hard is coming up with $100 to literally give away.

If you have been the recipient or giver of a random act of kindness I would love to hear about it.

Here’s what happened to me….
I attempted to take my kids to the zoo but life got in the way. It was just a bad mommy day. My friend offered to take us and use her season pass. Between the two of us we have five kids, ages 6,4,2,2, and 9 months. Even just getting them into the car is a feat. By the time we got to the zoo my friend was on the verge of tears from frustration. Then we waited in line for about 30 minutes and when we get to the front my friend can’t find her wallet. So we move the caravan over to the side and I stay with the kids while she runs back to the car to see if she can find it. She can’t. So she is panicking and holding back tears while she digs though all her stuff. It’s not there. We had stopped for gas on the way to the zoo so she had definitely had it when she left the house. We obviously can’t go inside the zoo while her wallet is lost. Not only do we not have the tickets but she needs to get home and cancel all her cards.

We tell the kids we can’t go inside and my daughter starts bawling. One thing you have to know about my daughter is that she loves drama. She has perfected the pathetic cry and was using it to it’s fullest. But seeing my daughter cry made my friend cry, which in turn made me cry. The whole thing was almost funny really. It was so ridiculous that the only thing you could do was laugh. But then a lady comes up from behind me and takes my hand. She says “here, take your kids to the zoo.” I look down and she had given me a $100 bill. I tried to give it back but she wouldn’t take it. I tried twice actually. Once I got my head around what had just happened and realized that we weren’t going to the zoo either way at this point I went back to her. I explained, with tears in my eyes, how we wouldn’t be going to the zoo and that we really are fine. Sob. Sob. We were just having a bad morning. But she refused to take the money.