Miracle at the Post Office

I would like to share with you an experience that meant a lot to me; it's about acts of kindness by strangers that really touched my heart.

January 2012, I had to run to the post office to send a birthday gift to one of my close friends.
Now normally, such a task wouldn't be that big of a deal, but you see, I had a fresh boot cast on my newly injured foot along with crutches. I had a stress fracture in my right foot and it was very difficult to get around on the crutches. It was tough enough trying to carry my purse around on my shoulder, much less a package. I ended up having to switch to a backpack purse during the time I had my crutches.

After almost busting ass just going down 3 stairs from my front door to to my car, my roommate put the package in my car for me. Driving was difficult since my gas-pedal foot was a clod-hopper, but I managed.

I drove the 5 minutes to the nearby post office, and once I parked, I realized I had no idea how I was going to get to the front door with the package and open the door. This was a bigger ordeal than I had anticipated! I opened my car door and fumbled with my crutches. I decided that I would use just one crutch to wobble in on while holding the package under my other arm. It was an epic struggle and hurt a lot only using the one crutch.

I made it up to the front door, and someone opened it for me, thankfully. I walked in, and was shocked by how incredibly LONG the line was!! It wasn't any special holiday, and it wasn't even NEAR a holiday. I couldn't figure out why the line was so bad; I snapped a photo of the line on my cell phone because it was like the twilight zone.

I was standing there gawking at the line, struggling to keep my balance, because it was painful to put all my weight on my uninjured foot, when an old woman in front of me offered to hold my package and stand in line for me while I waited in my car. I gratefully accepted her offer, and I checked with the guy in line directly behind me to make sure he was cool with saving my place in line, and he agreed. So I wobbled back to my car and sat there with my car door open and my crutch leaned up against it.

As I sat in my car waiting, out-of-the-blue, another old woman appeared next to my car door and asked me if I needed help. She actually startled me a little since I was in deep thought about how kind it was that the people inside the post office had helped me like that. I explained my predicament and told her about the people inside who were holding my package and place in line. The second old woman said she would go check on the status of my package for me and let me know. After a little while, she poked her head out the front door and waved at me, so I grabbed both crutches and went in while she held the door open for me. I was able to go right up to the counter because the guy let me back in front of him in line, and the old woman put my package on the counter for me.
Because of the kindness of strangers, I was able to complete my task and get my friend's birthday present in the mail on time.

On my drive home, I broke down into tears because I was so grateful for their random acts of kindness that day. That incident really made me want to help others even more.

"Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you."

~Mandelyn Reese
5/1/13

CLICK HERE TO READ A RELATED BLOG ABOUT MY FOOT INJURY