I've got something in my eye

[LightningCrash]

From a recent AskReddit -- http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/wj9de/today_i_gave_a_10_tip_to_a_pizza_delivery_man_he/

I have a somewhat similar story about my grandfather, but no one knew it until after he had died. Just thinking about it still brings tears to my eyes, but they are happy tears, and I thank you for reminding me.

My grandfather worked two jobs, and his evening / weekend job was as the only mechanic on duty at the only gas station open those hours in a small, rather rural county in central Ohio. I recall during my childhood going with my grandma to deliver sandwiches and sodas for "the guys" at his evening job. There were always a few of his buddies hanging out, plus the guy who pumped people's gas, and we all assumed the plentiful coolers of sandwich makings and drinks were for them.

At the laying out before the funeral, or visitation, or whatever you call it, we expected to be there about 2 hours starting at six pm greeting family and a few close friends. It ended up at 11 pm the funeral home staff finally kicked us all out. We were still shaking the hands of the line of people who had come to pay their respects. Most were people from around the county my grandmother knew a bit, but a few were completely unknown to us and had just found out about the funeral because of the posting in the newspaper printed in the next big town in the next county over.

It turns out over the years, when the rust belt was rusting especially and some as far back as the tail end of the great depression, my grandfather had often repaired people's cars when they were in dire straights. Many of those "bring some sandwiches for these guys" had been my grandfather feeding some poor schmuck and his family after he'd been layed off, had nothing to feed his kids, and was getting his car repaired to try to go hunt for work elsewhere, or maybe if they were lucky start work elsewhere.

I can't tell you how many people told us tearfully how he'd repaired their car and told them to just come pay him when they could, or even just to pay it forward. Many, many folks told us how he'd inspired them to perform various acts of kindness for others.

One of the people he'd told to pay it forward had ended up finding a way to go back to college and become an anesthesiologist by joining the military. He said remembering his promise to pay it forward to my grandfather caused him to take his military retirement and go to work for Doctor's Without Boarders and a group that repairs hairlips so impoverished children can smile and eat normally. Another gave my grandmother a picture of a stone in the wall of a play castle built for kids in a cancer ward that said it was dedicated in my grandfather's name. The guy donated an entire addition to a hospital in my grandfather's name.

I was a phone support jockey for Sprint a few years ago. A guy had called in saying that his son was killed in Iraq, and he needed to cancel the plan. The procedure was that he was supposed to send in the copy of the death certificate to get out of the contract. I looked at the son's name, checked icasualties.org and verified the death myself, without making this guy do any more work for verifying to a stupid ****ing phone company the fact that his only son was now dead.

I spent about an hour talking to the guy on the phone about life in general, just being a sounding board to help him deal with what was going on. The death was really fresh in his life, and I had a feeling that he didn't have anyone that he could open up to freely like you can with an anonymous stranger over the phone.

When I got off the line, my quality assurance lead came over with the manager. I thought, ****, I'm pretty ****ed. They're going to be pissed that I 'wasted' an hour-long phone call for someone who was no longer a customer. I found out that they were married and had a son in Afghanistan. They had apparently started listening in on the conversation when I got to the 15-minute mark and were captivated.

 

[jimeradams]

Way cool. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Popjim]

It usually always pays to do what is right!

 

[reddog1]

Very touching stories!