Francis Gay

WORKING on “meet and greet” for a supermarket also involves an element of security. Maggie doesn’t like looking out for suspect characters so it colours her attitude to that particular duty.

The other day, an elderly lady dropped her purse on the floor. Copper and silver scattered everywhere.

Before she could react several adults and children dived after the money. Maggie’s embarrassed to say she was sure some would go missing. But every penny was returned. Then she heard the lady say: “But I didn’t have any pound coins in the purse, did I?” Everyone had helped – and some had done more.

Understanding how many kind people she must meet every day restored Maggie’s faith and even made her “greet” a little from the joy of it. JIM wished he’d been wearing a less expensive jacket.

He’d bought this one for dog walking. It was wind-proof, rain-resistant and padded inside. But when he saw the teenage boy, who seemed to have been sleeping in the car park, and saw how cold he looked, he knew he there was no other option.

“My mind was full of the money I was wasting,” Jim told me. “I thought of the cheaper coats I would rather have given away. And I felt a fool when I insisted he take it. Then he wrapped it around him and said, ‘Oh, it’s still warm!’ And he smiled. That’s when I knew it wasn’t money I was giving away, or clothing, it was something of myself.”

And that’s the best gift we can ever give.