One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but
even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled
up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still
sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his
face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or
so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and
hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the
cold. He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put
in you. He said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the
car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.”
Well,
all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough.
Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack,
skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the
tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was
tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk
to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just
passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.
Bryan
just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed
him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined
all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan
never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him.
This
was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had
given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and
it never occurred to him to act any other way.
He told her that if
she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who
needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and
Bryan added, “And think of me.”
He waited until she started her car
and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good
as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles
down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to
eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip
home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps.
The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and
brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one
that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady
noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let
the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how
someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she
remembered Bryan.
After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a
hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her
hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door.
She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered
where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the
napkin.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady
wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once
helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me
back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.”
Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.
Well,
there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve,
but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got
home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money
and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much
she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was
going to be hard….
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he
lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft
and low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan
Anderson.”
There is an old saying “What goes around comes around.”
Author: Unknown
