Generous gesture (From Messenger Newspapers)

Generous gesture

2:02pm Friday 8th June 2012 in Your Letters

ON Saturday, May 26, my mother, aged 85, went to ASDA in Trafford Park to do her shopping.

Having completed her weekly shop, she joined the queue for a checkout. In front of her was another woman with her shopping.

Since she is of the generation where pleasantries such as ‘Hello’ and ‘Isn’t the weather nice?’ are quite common, a conversation of no great import took place with the stranger while the queue shortened.

When the stranger paid for her goods, she asked for £10 cashback, then turned and deposited the £10 cash on my mother’s trolley, picked up her own shopping and set off towards the exit without another word.

At this point my mother was rendered speechless, a situation I would have loved to see as I haven’t witnessed it yet. The unknown benefactor did turn to glance back to where my gobsmacked mother was standing and received a mouthed ‘Thank you very much’.

My mother then went to purchase two lottery tickets and made her way back to the cashier, giving her one of the lottery tickets, saying: ‘Have a share in my good fortune’.

It would be poetic to be able to say that my mother and the checkout lady shared in scooping the jackpot, but I don’t think that was ever on the cards.

The bottom line to all this is that I, and my mother, would like to say a great big thank you to the unknown shopper, who extended a gesture of help to a stranger which, in turn, led to a gesture of gratitude to another.

I don’t know who you are. I hope you read this and recognise who you are and may God bless you.

Name and address supplied.