A forgotten wallet inspired an act of kindness this week at a Winnipeg grocery store.
Linda Russell usually leaves grocery shopping to her husband, but on Wednesday she went to Extra Foods on St. Anne's Road to pick up food for a dinner party.
Russell had $122 of groceries in her cart. When she went to pay, however, she realized she had forgotten her wallet at home.
“I sort of went, ‘oh my god, what am I going to do’?” said Russell.
All the groceries were already on the conveyor belt at the till and Russell was prepared to load them back in the cart while she drove home to get her wallet.
But she didn't have to because grocery manager Darryl Laxdal happened to be working the cash register that day, a job he doesn’t normally do.
“Manager’s need to step up when things get chaotic,” said Laxdal.
Luckily for Russell, Wednesday happened to be one of those busy days.
Laxdal offered to pay for her groceries with his own money.
“Because I’m not a cashier, I didn’t necessarily handle it in the correct way that a cashier would; but it was a spontaneous act of kindness,” said Laxdal.
He paid for Russell’s groceries, a complete stranger, not knowing for certain if she would ever return to pay him back.
Russell returned about an hour later to pay back Laxdal and brought him a thank you card.
“I’m never going to forget this,” said Russell. “I just thought, ‘you are one special man.’ It really touched me a lot.”
She offered to buy him a gift for his kindness, but Laxdal refused. Instead, he simply asked her to pay it forward.
That’s exactly what Russell did.
She made a $60 donation to Siloam Mission to pay for 20 meals.
Laxdal said he was happy to hear his actions helped inspire Russell’s donation.
“It just creates a ripple effect, right,” said Laxdal.
