Faith in humanity, restored!
As mums we’ve all reached that breaking point – you know, that moment when we think, ‘Okay, that’s it; I can’t cope and I’m a terrible mum’. Of course it’s only natural to have these moments, but at the time we can feel helpless, alone and like our problems are insurmountable.
So when this Florida single mum got her ‘I can’t cope’ moment, the amazing kindness of a stranger not only completely turned things around for her, it restored her faith in humanity too.
Tawny Nelson is mum to four kids aged nine, five, two and six weeks. Her partner had recently left so things were “particularly rough” and her car was in a mess, so she didn’t drive anywhere unless completely necessary.
However, on this occasion she needed to go to the supermarket, so she loaded up the kids and car. But when they emerged from the store it was dark, the battery in the car was dead and there was no one she could call to help.
“I must have asked more than twenty people in the course of two hours for a jump,” she wrote, in a moving Facebook post shared on Frank Somerville KTVU’s page.
“They all ignored me. Not even a no. Just acted like I didn't exist. My five year old was melting down. My newborn SCREAMING, my two year old crying she was hungry, and my oldest desperately trying to help. I was bawling and felt like the worst mom ever.”
But finally someone did help. A 74-year old man with a cane and a limp. He knocked on the door and gave Tawny some food for her and the kids and told her his wife would be along shortly with a tow truck to take them home.
“Sure enough she arrived followed by the tow truck,” she wrote. “Us and our truck were taken home. The next morning the gentleman returned to my house with a mechanic who replaced my battery and alternator and fixed my window.
“The elderly gentleman then left and did not return. When I asked what I owed the mechanic and if I could make payments he smiled telling me the older man had paid for all of it. He said that the only payment the older man wanted was for me to never give up and keep being an amazing mom.
This amazing act of kindness moved the struggling mum to tears.
“I've never cried so hard in my life,” she wrote. “Things had been absolutely awful. More so than I care to explain. And without knowing us or our situation this kind man helped us in ways he will never know. What he did revived my faith when I was falling apart. But he wouldn't even take a hug. I'll never be able to thank him. But I certainly hope one day I can do what he did for me for someone else.”
Okay, we’re crying our eyes out here! It just shows that a single kind act lasts far beyond the moment. It stays with us for a long time, reminding us that there are amazing people out there.
