I have lived on Mercer Island pretty much my whole life. I went to Mercer View Elementary, North Mercer Junior High and graduated from Mercer Island High School.

I work part-time as a checker at the north-end QFC on Mercer Island. A recent incident that happened there really touched me.

While I was working as a checker recently, an elderly woman was at my check stand. She was so excited that she brought in her own brown paper bag to “save the environment.” All of her items were staples like milk, butter, bread, eggs, etc. Her bill came to around $30. While I was ringing her up, she was becoming very distraught as her food benefit card kept being rejected. She was frantically searching through her purse looking for another card and/or cash.

There was a younger woman behind her in line. The first customer was clearly embarrassed. The lady in line next to her was watching all of this patiently. She slipped her credit card in while the other woman was looking through her purse. I ran her card through and when the first customer looked up from her purse, I said, “It’s been taken care of,” motioning to the lady next to her in line.

The woman was so happy. She started crying and she hugged the generous, kind woman next to her. She asked her for her name and address so she could repay her. The generous stranger just gave her first name and said, “Consider this an early Christmas present.” It left me feeling like there are still so many wonderful people in this world. With this nation being so divided, and so many negative things going on in the world, it was so heartwarming to see this random act of kindness. God bless this woman who acted so selflessly and made one person’s life so much better. One human caring for another human and not wanting anything in return.

Francine Teel

Mercer Island