A couple of months ago, Brandon McNamee of Missouri, was casually driving his car on a cold winter day, when he saw a woman walking on the side of the highway at some point sticking her thumb out- she needed a ride.
Brandon, who had never before given a ride to anyone he didn’t know, decided to take the risk when he realized the woman was not wearing a heavy coat although the temperature was 19 degrees.
So, he pulled over and offered the stranger a ride. As they were driving to their destination, the man had the chance to chat with the woman and learn a few things about her situation. It appeared the woman, Kim, was working at Wendy’s and, while she normally went to work by car, it had recently broken down and her financial situation didn’t allow her to have it fixed.
So, Kim would leave home hours earlier every day in order to walk to work- and maybe on some days would be lucky enough to be given a ride like on the day she met Brandon.
Eventually, they arrived at Wendy’s, Kim thanked the man for giving her a ride, while Brandon also thanked her for not being a serial killer.
“I ain’t never picked nobody up off the side of the road before. I’m just glad you didn’t kill me,” he said and the two went their separate ways.
When Brandon was alone again, he decided to share the hitchhikers short story with his Facebook friends. When one of his friends saw it, he suggested he should raise some money to get the woman an Uber gift card so she didn’t have to walk back and forth for miles every day.
That was it! After that suggestion, everything pretty much happened automatically: in less than an hour, Brandon had raised enough money not only for the gift card, but also cash to give the stranger. All that was now left to do was go back to Wendy’s and offer the woman her gifts.
And so he did. A few hours later, Brandon was back at Wendy’s looking for Kim. When she saw him, she had no idea what was going to follow. She just looked at him unable to say a word.
So, Brandon explained the situation, leaving the woman speechless.
“We got you a gift card to Uber right there for $100.” All Kim could say was “Thank you!” But Brandon was bearing more gifts for her. “And then I know that you said your car costs $200 to fix. Here’s the $200 for the transmission… and then, here’s another $200 in case, you know, anything else comes up.”
This left Kim all teared up, she didn’t know how to thank the stranger that had just made her day and her life, in a way, a lot better!
This act of kindness is definitely restoring our faith in humanity, showing us that some people out there still know the value of giving.
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