One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but
even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled
up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still
sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped
to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t
look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was
frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was
those chills which only fear can put in you. He said, “I’m here to help
you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way,
my name is Bryan Anderson.”
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad
enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack,
skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the
tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and
began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was
only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to
her aid.
Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she
owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already
imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not
stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job
to him.
This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty,
who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that
way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.
He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time
she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the
assistance they needed, and Bryan added, “And think of me.”
He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold
and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home,
disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to
grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg
of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two
old gas pumps.
The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and
brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one
that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase.
The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but
she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady
wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger.
Then she remembered Bryan.
After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar
bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar
bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by
the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady
could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote:
“You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once
helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me
back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.”
Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.Well, there were tables to
clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made
it through another day. That night when she got home from work and
climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had
written.
How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard….
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to
her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s
going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”
There is an old saying “What goes around comes around.”
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