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In this day and age, it’s easy for people to get caught up in their own lives and forget about those around them.
Too often we walk past people without really taking the time to get to know them or find out what might be bothering them.
Many of us have seen a stranger look upset in a public place and continued walking without asking them why.
Something as simple of asking a stranger if they are OK can come off as prying, but sometimes it’s just necessary.
That’s exactly how Lisa Lemming Jackson felt recently when she was walking through a grocery store in Georgia.
As Lisa explains it, she was just minding her own business when she suddenly spotted a man whose expression stopped her dead in her tracks.
It all started when Lisa was walking down an aisle while doing some grocery shopping in Kroger back in August.
When she looked up from her shopping, Lisa suddenly made eye contact with an elderly man whose pained expression in his eyes instantly set off alarm bells in her head.
Acting on a hunch, Lisa immediately asked the elderly man what was wrong, prompting him to tell her his heartbreaking story.
Here’s what happened next, in Lisa’s own words:
“Just spent 2 hrs with a elderly man at Kroger. It started with me just smiling at him, making eye contact ….
As I walked past him he looked like he needed something. I went back and asked him if I could help him. Tears welled up in his eyes and he said:
I have colon cancer and I have had a really bad accident, if I get up out of this cart everyone will know … What should I do?”
The look of his dignity lost left me with a lump in my throat.
From that moment on, Kroger staff quickly fetched us wipes, undergarments and discreetly took him to their employer bathroom Area where he was given clothes.”
“He cried and apologized.
He said he had to hurry his wife was at home alone. When we walked to the register we found his groceries all bagged and somehow paid for.
He cried harder.”
“He said he fought in Vietnam and Korean War and loved his country, but up until day he said he thought his country forgot about him.
We both cried and I shared with him my own struggles and fears… He gave me words of wisdom and encouraged me that maybe after all, humanity still does care about one another.
Today proved it.
Thank you Elmer , thank you Kroger and thank you God for the lesson and reminder I received today.”
We should all be so lucky to meet such a kindhearted person like Lisa Lemming Jackson!
