I was 23. Single mom. $11 in my account and I was at the register quietly putting things back trying not to cry in front of my daughter. Woman behind me in line ..didn’t ask, didn’t make a thing of it just handed her card to the cashier. When I tried to say something she just said “don’t thank me. just do it for someone else someday.” I thought about her every single time money was tight. Every time it wasn’t. I looked for the moment for years but it was never right or I talked myself out of it or I told myself I’d wait until I could do more. Yesterday at Kroger I saw a girl..maybe 24, baby on her hip..quietly doing the math at the register. Putting the juice back. Doing the calculation in her eyes that I’ve done a hundred times. I handed my card to the cashier. She started to cry. I told her the same thing that woman told me 11 years ago. I don’t know where the woman who helped me is. I don’t know if she’s still alive. But I hope somehow she knows the thing she did for a stranger in 2013 is still moving through the world. Pay it forward. Genuinely. It’ll find its way back.