Love really is all around #2
The bookshop on Christmas Eve Eve
The Christmas bookshop
A couple of years ago, I took the most wonderful part-time job in my local Waterstones. I absolutely flipping loved it. To be surrounded by books, to be immersed in the works of authors, to learn and discover every day, to be with people, to work with others… Having emerged from the covid chrysalis (although masks were still required), it was an absolute joy. Sadly at that time my chronic fatigue couldn’t even sustain a part-time job in a bookshop along with life’s other demands so I didn’t stay on when invited to at the end of my temporary contact, however, as I worked over the Christmas period of 2021, something truly beautiful happened…the day before Christmas Eve…
This is just a short story, but I hope it brings you joy ✨
How much is that card in the window?
A couple of days before Christmas, on a heck busy Saturday, a lady came into the shop to buy a very beautiful card. Unbeknownst to those of us frantically working away at the tills, with queues almost out the door, she had spent quiet moments browsing and selecting just the right card for a particular purpose. When she came to the till to pay for it, however, her bank card declined and so she said she’d come back later once she’d sorted it out. With that, and before I really had time to respond or react, she smiled and left.
The customer behind her, having overheard the transaction (or lack of), asked if she could please pay for the card to ensure that the lady could definitely have it when she returned. A very sweet random act of kindness - and one whose impact she may never know.
I put the card aside (noting to buy one myself for someone as it was so beautiful), and waited for the first lady to reappear. She didn’t come back, and in the flurry of one of the busiest retail days of the year, I figured she would have got swept up in other things, and felt quite sad that the second customer’s act of kindness might not reach the intended recipient after all.
Just before closing time, however, the original lady came back in. Yaay!! My slightly befuddled (and somewhat ‘faceblind’) mind didn’t recognise her immediately, but something in her eager and anticipatory look slotted my brain jigsaw pieces into place, and I proudly retrieved the card we had set aside earlier to (literally) present to her. The card was priced at £2.25 and she explained that she’d only had £1.85 in her bank account which was why the card declined. 40p short, two days before Christmas.
She told me how she had spent a good few hours arranging things with her family so that she could get £5 transferred into her account in order to buy the card, and she managed to get back to us just before we closed the doors. It clearly meant a lot to her. I then excitedly told her that another customer had, in fact, paid for the card for her, and asked us to keep it aside, so she didn’t need to pay a thing. Her eyes welled up with tears, and for a while she was actually speechless, choked with emotion. She could not believe that a stranger had done that for her. She was so deeply impacted that it stopped me in my tracks.
In those moments where the shop was winding down for the day and my weary body and mind were more than ready to switch from ‘multiple brief surface interactions’ into something calmer and deeper, she explained to me that the card was for a dear friend, who she was going to visit later that day. With soft tears dancing in her eyes, she explained how her friend was dying of cancer and that the friend’s husband had arranged a farewell party for the closest of them to come and gather together for the very last time. They had stipulated no presents, but perhaps just to bring a nice card, and a message. When she saw this card in the shop, she knew it was the one, and she spent all day trying to gather the money to buy it. It carried such great significance, and it was for this card that the kind stranger paid.
My colleagues and I stood there, suspended in the emotion, absorbing the significance of the moment, and how very special that card now was, in so many ways.
To the lady that paid for the card
I had so many thoughts as I left work that day as a very happy Christmas Elf. Whilst my income has decreased significantly since leaving corporate life and becoming a writer, I have never, ever had to leave a shop because of 40p (well not since I was about 7 years old, and then it would have been because of tuppence and the cost of a couple of fruit salad chews).
I have no idea what £2.25 meant to the lady who bought the card - but actually that is entirely irrelevant. What matters is that she overheard the conversation at the till, and wanted to make sure that the complete stranger in front of her didn’t go without something that clearly held meaning. No questions asked.
Ever since that day, I have wanted to say ‘thank you’ with all my heart to the lovely lady who paid for the card. Your act of kindness meant more than you could possibly know.
I’d love to think that one day, this story reaches you, and that you do know.
Perhaps, one day, it will.
If you would like to read the first in this short series, you can find it here Love is all around #1
Please do share, and Merry Christmas my friends!! 💕🎄✨
Have you ever witnessed somebody buying something for a complete stranger?
Is it a situation you have been in - on either side?
I’d really love to hear
Love & lemons 💕🍋
Em xx
Heartwarming story to start the day. Thanks for sharing Xx
That’s a wonderful story. Random acts of kindness can go such a long way and reading this is an excellent reminder of how fortunate I am (even when I think I’ve much less cash than I used to have). Thank you for sharing 🧡xx