I bought more than I intended at the supermarket, so I asked for another bag.

“I can’t charge you for this,” the cashier said, handing me a bag from another shop. “Our order didn’t come through and we ran out of bags, so a regular customer went to a different along the road and bought back boxes of these for us to use.”

“He spent his own money to help a multi-million-pound organisation?” I asked, just a little incredulous.

“Oh, it wasn’t to help the business,” she explained. “He saw someone getting irate at one of the checkout operators because they couldn’t get a bag, so he did it to help us. It wasn’t about the supermarket, it was about the people.”

Bless your heart, sir, whoever you are.

And thanks for reminding us of the truth, that wherever we go, whatever we do, it should always be about the people!

I was talking to Mary at the special assistance area of a large airport.

She and her colleagues supply wheelchairs, invisible disability lanyards, friendly smiles, and listening ears to travellers who need them. It’s a service that doesn’t make a profit but eases the worries and the journeys of so many people each and every day.

In the time we spent together, I could see how perfectly suited she was for the job, the kind of person people wouldn’t hesitate to ask for help. And if she saw anyone hesitate, she would approach them. Then Mary told me of her own invisible disability, a condition that working at the airport actually helped with.

When we parted, I couldn’t help but wonder, how often does it happen that our own suffering has the side-effect of making us better at caring for others?

Sometimes you just have to have been there!