What are the lengths we’re willing to go to help others?
It’s easy to say that kindness goes a long way because it is. However, how willing are we to be the ones to give out kindness to others in need? How far would we go to help others?
Maria Balboa was bagging groceries one day at H-E-B in Annaville, Texas.
It felt like an ordinary day for her as she often comes across many people in her line of work. She shared that she would often see customers using their SNAP and eWIC cards.
However, one Monday, it seemed like she was meant to do more than bagging groceries.
She noticed a woman at the counter beside her who was bringing two little kids. They had a cart of groceries to check out with $137 total. The woman handed her SNAP card to the cashier.
Her card only had $19 credits left, and she didn’t know about this.
Maria overheard the woman’s conversation with the cashier. The woman said she would like to return other items aside from the ones meant to be their dinner that day since that’s all she could afford.
Hearing this, Maria had a gut feeling that she should do something.
“At that moment, I felt like God (was) telling me, ‘Pay for the groceries,’” she told KRIS 6 News. “I stopped to think for a second because $137 was going to be a lot for me that day.”
She decided to listen to the voice within and paid for the woman’s groceries.
Maria handed her SNAP card to the cashier to pay for everything. The woman couldn’t believe what she did, but she repeatedly thanked Maria for her kindness when the groceries were finally settled. Even the kids kept thanking her.
The story didn’t end there, of course. Kindness begets kindness in multiple folds.
Maria got called to her manager’s office during her next workday and was nervous that she might be in trouble. To her surprise, HEB Annaville Manager Mark Moeller handed her a review of their service.
She couldn’t believe it; it was from the woman she had helped!
She shared a photo of the printed review on her Facebook account, and it instantly went viral. It turned out that the woman she helped was a grandmother of two who was struggling to make ends meet to make sure her grandkids wouldn’t be taken away from her and sent to foster care.
What Maria did was a massive help to the struggling family.
The review the woman wrote was full of gratitude. She even shared how everything felt heavy for her the past few days and what Maria did to her family lifted her spirits.
Mark Moeller saw this as an invaluable trait from such a young employee.
He knew how Maria was also working to pay for school and bills, but her selfless act was nothing short of inspiring. They refunded the amount that Maria paid for the woman and gave her a bag of goodies, too.
Maria also sent a beautiful message of kindness in her Facebook post:
“Always be kind and do a good deed for someone when you can. Always be good to the people around you because you never know what someone else might have going on.”
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