By pepko 
I bought shawarma for a homeless man and his dog on a bitter winter evening. It seemed like a simple act of kindness at the time. But when he slipped me a note hinting at a past I’d completely forgotten, I knew this was no ordinary encounter.
After a long day at the sporting goods store in downtown’s crowded mall, packed with holiday shoppers and malfunctioning registers, I was exhausted. My mind was cluttered with thoughts of my daughter’s failing math grade and the cold that awaited me outside. The thermometer read a chilling 26.6°F as I wrapped my coat tighter around me.
Walking past the shawarma stand, the scent of spices tempted me, but the vendor’s grumpiness deterred me. However, my attention was caught by a homeless man and his dog, shivering in the cold, looking longingly at the food. The vendor was about to shoo them away when my grandmother’s teachings on kindness echoed in my head.
I quickly ordered two shawarmas and coffees, handing them over to the man whose hands shook with gratitude. As I turned to leave, he stopped me, handing me a note with a cryptic message about saving his life before, dated from a time when Lucy’s Café was still open.
Back home, amidst the chaos of family life, I found the note in my coat pocket. It jogged my memory back to a thunderstorm three years ago at Lucy’s Café. I had bought a man coffee and a croissant, thinking little of it at the time. But this note told me it had meant much more to him than I could have imagined.
Determined to do more, I sought out the man the next day, offering real help beyond a meal. He shared his story of loss and despair, how my small act at Lucy’s had given him hope to keep going, and how he’d since found companionship in his dog, Lucky.
With my husband’s legal expertise and our family’s collective effort, we helped Victor secure shelter, find employment, and regain some semblance of his former life. A year later, on my birthday, Victor showed up at my doorstep with a cake, looking transformed, his eyes filled with gratitude for the new life he was building.
This experience taught me and my children the profound impact of kindness, echoing my grandmother’s wisdom. It was a reminder that in our busy lives, we must always look out for those moments where we can offer a hand, for we might never know how much it truly saves someone.