I got this email from a good friend and reader, Beth. This isn’t one of those emails you see floating around (not yet) where it happened to some unknown person maybe. This wasn’t copied and posted from some obscure feel-good location either. This is a first-hand account relayed directly to me and happened this past Saturday. With that said, it’s a great story and I asked to share it. This is one of those you want to copy and email to everyone on your list so it DOES become one of those emails that float around the world for years. I’m posting it exactly as it was sent to me without editing:

I’ve worked in retail for nearly 15 years but I’ve never seen this before.

Today was really busy, one day before Easter. At the checkout area one of our new cashiers appeared to be having difficulties with two customers who were arguing a bit back and forth at her register. Her long Easter shopping line slowed to a crawl as the two people, a man in maybe his late twenties with a ‘high and tight’ haircut, and a woman a bit older, with her own cart of merchandise, appeared to be having some kind of disagreement. As I approached from the side to see what the problem was, I heard the woman say something like ‘It’s done. Go in peace and Happy Easter. Have a great day. Now go, go on now!. Happy Easter!’ She was smiling the whole time she repeated it, and I noticed my cashier was grinning, too.
I figured maybe the two customers knew each other, that all was well, so I turned and grabbed a nearby empty cart to push it outside. As I came back in a moment later, the man was heading towards me and the door, not looking at anything in particular, just holding his free hand, the one without a large sack in it, palm up as if to shrug, and say, ‘what the heck just happened???’ as he was shaking his head slowly back and forth. And the look on his face…I couldn’t pin it down! More curious then before, I went back by that register, and found the cashier and the lady still smiling as she in her turn was having her purchases bagged.

I must have looked the question; as the cashier immediately piped up, “Do you know what this lady just did? That guy was a Marine buying a big Easter basket for his family, and she swiped HER credit card before he could and paid for it for him! Thanking him for his service!”

Now, I still don’t know the word for what I was privileged to see in that man’s face as he left, but I do know what the overall effect was, for all four of us – priceless…….!!!!! I’d bet it brought a bit of a grin to your face as well!

P.S. Pass this along to 15 people and you’ll magically get an email back in your Sent folder that says you sent it to 15 people. What? That would happen anyway? That’s what the Sent folder is for? SEE, IT WORKS!!

And don’t forget about the liveblog with Representatives Wilson and Ros-Lehtinen today at 1pm EST.