There are times when you just don’t think anything good will happen.And when you’re feeling helpless and lost, even small acts of kindness really helps you to pick up the energy.For a woman who lived in Southern Indiana back in the days, she had a m iracle happen to her when a stranger decided to show her compassion.
In September 1960, she woke up and realized that her husband had left her. She was alone with six young children, and only 75 cents. Although she was devastated, she had no time to grieve.
She had to put the food on the table no matter what – so she decided drive around to find a job. Sadly, even though she went to every factory and store in town, she could not find any.
The last place she went to was a few miles out of town, called the Big Wheel, which was a truck stop. Thankfully, she was able to find a job here – the owner said that she was actually looking to find someone to cover the graveyard shift that would last from 11pm to 7am. With 65 cents per hour, she was happy to take it. What happened at this place later is both unexpected and heartwarming – here’s an excerpt of what she posted online, recalling the event.
“When I got home in the mornings, I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money – fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing. “
Had angels taken up residence in Indiana?” I wondered.“
But, that wasn’t the end of the surprise!
On Christmas morning, just as she was done with her shift and was ready to go home, she found her car filled with all kinds of boxes. When she opened them, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She said, “inside was whole case of little blue jeans, size 2-10! I looked inside another box: it was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some other boxes. There were candy and nuts and bags of groceries.. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.
As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose, I was sobbing with gratitude.
And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana… they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.”
