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During payment in the supermarket, I experienced an issue settling the bill for my $100 worth of groceries. The issue wasn't that I couldn't afford it, rather I had neglected to shift cash to our daily spending account. I was trying to move the money over quickly as I stood in line, however, the mobile banking application was down.

Accompanying me were my two toddlers with me, a toddler and a baby, with one child had started screaming. With a growing queue of other customers in line behind me, the cashier set aside my receipt for the items already scanned and held it, then moved on to assisting the next shoppers.

Frantically, I reached out to my partner requesting that he to head to the grocery store with his payment card and settle the bill, as it didn't seem that I was going to be able to completing the payment. While I was on the phone, a woman waiting in queue settled her own bill – and then informed the cashier, “I’ll pay for hers, too.”

I attempted to refuse, but she wouldn't hear of it. She simply stated:

“Just pay it back in the community somehow.”

I felt so honoured that someone would do that for me – it was so kind. That woman could see I was flustered and embarrassed at the busy checkout and intervened to help.

We live in quite a small town, but because it all happened so fast, I am unsure exactly who helped who paid for the groceries, so I haven’t been able to thank her.

But I did honour that kind woman’s request. Previously, I had a whole bunch of infant items available through social media sales. However, following that incident, I took it down and shared in a community exchange group so I could pass it all on for free to someone in need. A woman with a six-week-old foster baby accepted my proposal, and I felt happy I was able to pass on the favour.

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