A Helping Hand

"I walked out of Walmart today and got in my car. As I began to pull out, I had to wait for a man in a wheelchair to pass by. As I watched him, I noticed that he was missing a leg from the knee down and was wearing, what appeared to be, old, government issued, combat boot. He was (from my guess) in his seventies and seemed to be stopping to take a break.

He had not realized that I had started my car and was attempting to pull out, so when he saw me, he waved in an apologetic manner and rolled forward three more times and took another break. I backed up my car the inches I had previously pulled forward, put it in park, turned off the engine, and got out.

We reached the produce area and I asked him to tell me about himself. He reluctantly looked at me and began telling me that he lived in a couple blocks away, and that he just recently lost his wife. I asked him if he was a veteran, to which he replied that he was - but with pain on his face, so I changed the subject and asked if he had made a shopping list.

He handed me a list with only four things on it: peanut butter, soup, bread, and bananas. So we began shopping and I continued to talk... hard to believe - I know.

Once we had gotten the items he needed, I asked if he needed the essentials: milk, eggs, butter. He told me that he might not make it home, without them going bad. So I questioned how he got to the store. He told me that he had wheeled himself like he was doing from his home to the store. I knew my little car was too small, so I called an Uber for him, one that was handicap accessible and grabbed the essentials from the grocery section, plus a few other things and put them in the cart.

After placing a gallon of milk in his cart he was crying. People were passing by us, looking sideways at him. I knelt down and asked him what was wrong and he replied, that I "was doing far too much for a man that I barely knew."

I told him that with the family I was raised in, we help one another, no matter the task and that I had never met a stranger. I also told him that he deserved everything I was doing for him because he fought for my freedom and sacrificed so much. We made it to the check out line and I paid for his groceries, against his request.

When we got outside, we waited for the Uber together. He thanked me over and over again and appeared to me, to have been in a much better mood than when I found him.

When the Uber arrived, I helped him load his groceries and wheelchair into the car and asked the driver to take him home and help him into his house with his groceries. I gave him the only cash I had on me - $44, also against his will. I told him thank you for his service before closing the door. Tears formed again and he thanked me one last time and said, "God bless you."

I returned to my car, and thought, 'This is the world we live in today. How many people passed him and would have continued to pass him while he struggled? How many people are willing to give their money to Vanity Fair to read all about Caitlyn Jenner or to Sports Illustrated to see what athlete is disrespecting the flag by kneeling during the national anthem, and not help a veteran pay for his groceries?

Today was a truly humbling experience for me, and I consider myself extremely blessed to have the capability of understanding what is truly important in this world. THAT man was a HERO, and unfortunately, far too many will say otherwise. God bless the men and women who have fought for our right to view the wrong people as heroes, and thank God for the people who know better."

Happy Veteran's Day!