Adina’s Cute & Perky Blog!

A random act of kindness visited on me many years ago.

A small, but huge gesture.

It was during college. I was a new mom, and at my heaviest weight. It was during the years that neither parent had anything to do with me.

I have mentioned that I have not seen my dad in thirty years, but there was a decade-long span in there where my mom didn’t speak to me either.

To top it off, I was in an unhappy marriage. One I had gotten myself into to escape a bad home life.

So on this particular day, I was overwhelmingly encapsulated with sorrow.

One look at me was all it took to figure this out.

I can still remember the outfit. The bottom was the only pair of pants that fit, and the top was a man’s size XXL white cotton T-shirt. Hair unkempt and unwashed. No make-up.

I was failing college. Failing as a mom and wife, and failing at life.

And on this particular day I had taken all I could take.

I remember the long walk back to my car in the commuter parking lot.

As always happens when you look your worst, I ran into someone I knew. A guy, or course.

I got to my car and hurriedly climbed in. All I could do was hang my head on the steering wheel and cry like a baby. Actual sobs.

And the tears would not stop.

And there was no one to turn to. Neither parent. Not my husband. Not even friends, because I always hid my misery from them. They simply did not know the depths of my sorrow.

So I cried.

Then I started the car.

In a daze I began to drive.

For over an hour I drove and cried.

Toward the end, I pulled up to a stop light. Although it is not red, I stop.

And I sat there. Through how many lights, I just don’t know.

There must have been an angel of patience behind me, because I know the man behind me sat through two or three red lights with me.

And never once did he honk, cuss, flip me off, or even wave.

When I shook myself out of the moment and realized where I was and drove on, he just went on too.

A random act of kindness, just when I needed it most.

A lesson I have carried with me almost 20 years now.

So when someone crosses my path today who does not act the way I want them to, be it at the grocery store, at work, or even the gym, I will remind myself they may be in the midst of their worst day.

And I will never know who that man was, but I try to repay him every once in a while with my own random acts of kindness.