Teachers are possibly the most valuable yet least recognized people in our communities.
They shape characters, personalities, and they give our children all the knowledge and social skills that they need growing up. They act as caretakers, mentors, nurses, psychologists, life coaches, cheerleaders, and much more, but their work is still not acknowledged as it should.
However, even if teachers’ work is often underestimated, life always finds a way to pay them back for all their hard work.
Just like what happened to retired teacher Barbara Barbin of Pearland, Texas, when she least expected it.
It was just another day, and Ms Barbin was at a local Walmart getting groceries for the family, accompanied by her 13-year-old grandson, who is legally blind.
After putting in her cart what she needed, Barbin and the young boy headed for the cashier, where there seemed to be a problem.
To Barbin’s surprise, her card was not approved, and she started feeling embarrassed.
“(I told the cashier) let me go to the teller machine to try to see if I can get it to work,” she told ABC13.
Anyone in her position would feel embarrassed and worried, no doubt about that.
Countless thoughts must have crossed her mind at that moment: would she manage to buy the groceries? What was wrong with her card? How would her grandson feel? What would the cashier and bystanders think of her?
Her first thought was to go to the teller machine and check if she could get cash that way.
But, luckily, she didn’t have to do any of that. Her angels were right there when she needed them the most.
The angels were sent to her in the shape of four men, who were waiting in line behind her, and who decided to do their daily act of kindness right there and then.
“A gentleman walked up behind me and put $140 in my hand to pay for groceries,” she said.
When the four men realized that the woman was facing issues with her card and had difficulty paying for her groceries, they just decided to put together an amount to help her in a spontaneous act of kindness.
“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, that was so kind’,” an overwhelmed Barbin said.
So, finally, the retired teacher managed to pay for her groceries, and left Walmart feeling as if she had just witnessed a miracle.
“In times like this, me being a black woman, they were four white men,” she said. “They just came up because they felt the need.”
When the whole thing sank in, Barbin decided to look for the four men that helped her so that she could thank them and let them know what their deed meant to her.
But this can be a difficult task. Barbin knows that she might not be able to find them. Still, she knows that her angels are there and she hopes that, by sharing her story, people will be encouraged to help others in need when they get the chance.
Watch the video below for all the details of this heartwarming story.
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