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 Pontiacwas 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 into 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 monthspregnant, 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 waitresswondered 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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