So my day started with my furnace and hot water heater not working. After checking all shutoff valves and breakers and checking all other gas appliances in the house only to find they were working, I assumed the problem had to be the natural gas lines to the house. Feeling a bit overwhelmed and not sure what to do next, I placed a call to our local utility provider. A nice young man promptly showed up and fixed the problem. and he made me feel better about calling even though the problem was not theirs. Lets just say, the problem was more with the knowledge of the homeowner about things like gas hot water heaters and gas furnaces than with the utilities. Result - both furnace and hot water heater are just fine. My mood however was not so fine. Tired of shelling out dollar after dollar lately on home repairs and having things seemingly going wrong all the time, my next step was a trip to our local Ace Hardware store in Bismarck for a new furnace filter. Digging my worn out debit card out of my purse to pay the $35 for the filter, the gentleman in front of me stopped me and insisted to the cashier that he was going to pay my bill! I asked him why he would want to do such a kind thing and he responded that he just wanted to make someones day. Of course, I got all teary as I tried to insist that he didnt need to do this but he paid the bill and walked out the door as Katie and I stood there with our mouths hanging open. This man had no way of knowing that my day had started out so poorly and that I was sort of struggling. One single random act of kindness made me step back and appreciate all the goodness in my life and the kindness of this stranger made me appreciate the goodness there is in people. Driving home Katie and I picked up a coffee at a drive through and my lovely daughter paid it forward by paying for the car behind us. We pulled forward and watched the face of the woman in the car as she was told her bill was paid. Priceless! Thank you Mister Stranger in the Ace Hardware store in Bismarck ND for teaching me the power of kindness to strangers.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 22:07:36 +0000