Stories of Kindness from Around the World

This one isn't a commentary on the words of some great philospher, it's not words of wisdom passed down from bygone generations - it's just the story of my morning so far!

It's a grey, blustery Wednesday morning here on the west of Scotland. A nothing much kind of day. The plan was, I would take the "weans" to school, walk out to the supermarket, pick up a few things, and then my day could begin.

Well the walk to the supermarket takes you, literally, across the forecourt of a Fire Station. As I came up to it I heard sirens. Not fire sirens though.

Two lanes of traffic, car drivers, bus drivers, a truck driver or two, put their journeys on hold and pulled over to the side of the road.

With sirens wailing and blue light flashing the ambulance tore up the white line in the centre of the road. I caught sight of the focussed, female paramedic behind the wheel and wondered what she was heading into.

As the ambulance flew along the road I wished them Godspeed, then said a silent thank you to the drivers who did their bit in helping whoever needed that help this morning.

On the forecourt by now I turned and looked up at a fully loaded fire engine. The crew on board were obviously about to head out, but perhaps not quite at the speed of the paramedics.

Pure chance had put me between two of our emergency services at that exact moment. The driver nodded and, thinking how much we owed to these people, I smiled and waved back.

Okay, and on with the shopping! Nothing very dramatic there. Except ...

Having picked up everything I needed I made my way to a checkout. There was only one man in the line ahead of me. An elderly gent. The checkout lady was asking after his wife who, apparently, was in hospital.

"It's worse than that," he said. And although he had his back to me I could hear the tears in his voice.

And now, just to add to it all, he couldn't find the kind of talc she had specially requested.

For the old fellow, who plainly wasn't used to supermarkets, that certain kind of talc, had taken on an importance out of all proportion to the product. I got the impression he thought this might be the last thing he could ever do for his sweetheart - and he couldn't find it!

Apologising profusely to me, the checkout lady came out from behind her counter, took him by the arm and guided him through the toiletries section until he found what he wanted for his wife.

Rushing back she said, "I'm sorry about that. I'd get fired if they knew I'd left a customer waiting. We're not supposed to do that. I hope you don't mind."

Mind? Mind? I was touched and honoured.

I made sure I sought out the checkout supervisor before I left and told them what a gem they had working for them. Rather than being fired, I suggested they give her a raise.

This was supposed to have been a little walk before my day began for real. But that forty-five minute period at the beginning of a nothing much kind of day taught me something. We make a big noise about the bad and the evil, but look around ... there are angels everywhere!

Okay, now I'm at my desk and my day is about to begin for real. But how can I top that???