“My name is Brenda and I have attended a wonderful church based in Rooty Hill called MBM all my life. When I was in sixth grade, a program was started called ‘Prayer Buddies.’ Basically, this program entailed a sixth grade student being paired with an older member of the congregation to share their life with and pray with once a month. I was lucky enough to be paired with a beautiful lady named Juanita to share my life with during this time.
I always loved meeting with Juanita, but as the years passed, I lost contact with her. I didn’t even realize I had her on Facebook as she very rarely posted anything. But one October day in 2017, Juanita posted a ‘selfie’ of herself and her beautiful husband who were celebrating their 52nd wedding anniversary. I decided to reach out to Juanita in hopes to reconnect, wondering if she would even remember who I was. Well, turns out she did remember who I was, so we met for coffee and have been meeting together once a month ever since.
Sadly, Juanita’s husband Ross had been sick for some time and I was brokenhearted to hear he had passed away late August of 2020. I have met with Juanita a few times since her husband’s passing, but something happened on this particular Saturday, and will stay with both Juanita and I forever.
I had decided to get Juanita out of her house and take her for a lovely breakfast to chat about how she had really been coping. Upon asking her this very question, Juanita began to sob, telling me all the things she missed about her beautiful husband of nearly 55 years. I placed her hand in mine and began to stroke it as tears streamed down both of our cheeks in grief.
All of a sudden, a lady approached our table carrying a stunning bouquet of pink, cheery flowers. I quickly thought, ‘This lady must know Juanita,’ but then she spoke and I couldn’t believe my ears. She said something along the lines of, ‘Hi, I’m sorry to intrude. I don’t know you but I was driving past and saw you crying so I wanted to buy you these flowers to put a smile on your face.’ Juanita instantly broke down crying as she received her gorgeous flowers. I informed the lady about how Juanita had just lost her husband, and this kind stranger immediately wrapped her arms of love and warmth around my precious friend, and hugged her tightly.
Through her sobs, Juanita requested the name of this kind lady and she told us it was Kylie. It might have cost Kylie $40 or so to do this, but the kindness and love she showed to Juanita through a simple gesture was priceless to both of us and is something we will never forget.
Juanita and I spent the remainder of our time together exchanging stories where we had been blessed by simple acts of kindness from random strangers and have never left our hearts and minds. I’m so thankful to God for the blessing this was. If you see a person in need and are in a position to do so, go out of your way to pay for the item they can’t, help someone who is struggling and is in need of a helping hand, maybe get the bill for a couple beside you, just because. You never know the impact a simple gesture could have on someone for the rest of their life.”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Brenda Leigh Collins. You can follow her journey on Instagram. Submit your own story here, and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.
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