Paying for Groceries

Around 1966, my father came home to my mother and me, an infant. I was crying. My father asked my mother why I was crying. She said “We don’t have food to feed him”.

My father was a carpenter and in between jobs at the time.

He immediately went to the grocery store. He filled the basket with necessary items. He then found the manager of the store. He asked the manager to let him get home before he called the police. So I could eat.

The manager took him to the front and checked out his groceries. He asked my father to come back after he got the job. They would settle up then.

My father got the job. He went back to settle up with the manager. The manager asked him if he had the money. My father said “yes”, as he was getting it out to pay.

The manager stopped him saying “I don’t want your money, what I want is for you to help someone as I have helped you”.

A while back, my father told me this story. He said “Son, I have been paying for those groceries for a long time”.

I try to take his story and words to heart. I believe in paying it forward.

You never know when it may be you who is in need.