I love the bargains at Goodwill, but I really go there for the selection. While most department stores have a handful of styles in my size (little-bitty), at Goodwill there are DOZENS of options. They have the clothes all sorted by color, which I guess kind of makes sense. This does explain why everything I have bought at Goodwill is some shade of brown. By the time I get through the brown rack, I have either found something to try on or exhausted myself looking.

The first thing I saw when I walked into the store today was a woman browsing the book section. She was flipping through a book whose cover I could see clearly. “Money Secrets the Pros Don’t Want You to Know.” I headed toward the familiar rack of brown pants but found my eyes wandering. Two men in long coats walked down the aisle of kitchenware. I watched as one of them accidently knocked a couple of things off a low shelf with his coat. He briefly looked back at the floor and then just kept going.

A woman carrying two pair of pink shoes caught my eye. I glanced at her feet and the rest of her outfit, which gave no indication of this penchant for pastels. I watched her go back and forth a couple of times between the shoe racks (also arranged by color) and a shopping cart. She picked out a few things, then put them back on the rack. After a couple of minutes, I stepped in beside her.

“I would never think to buy pink shoes,” I said. She smiled. “I know, but they do make a statement.” I laughed. “I’m not sure that’s the statement I want to make!” She laughed, too. Then I told her, “I wouldn’t have guessed you like pink so much.” “Yeah,” she said. “I guess my taste really is more conservative.” She pointedly regarded her gray sweatpants and black shoes.

A penchant for pink

We talked a bit more; there was something so sweet about this woman and her easy, engaging manner. I found myself checking my pocket to make sure I really had a C-note in there. Then I told her my name and that I had something I wanted to give to her. “Is that okay, if I give you something?” She said it was. “This is for you.” I handed her the bill and she looked at it, then at me. “Oh, my,” she said. A question was forming in her eyes but she just kept looking at me. Finally she said, “I guess I’m at a loss for words! Why?”

I told the woman that my mom had died not too long ago, and had left me an unexpected gift. And that I was making some gifts in return and something about her had just touched my heart. “This is unbelievable,” she said. “Can I give you a hug?” She gave me a big hug and then told me she was very sorry about my mom. She said she lost both her parents and a brother in a three-year period and it was really hard. “You just have to live your life, I mean really live, not take it for granted,” she told me. “It’s easier with time, but you never really get over it.”

She told me her name was Leslie and that her son had recently messed up his shoes and needed a new pair. She sent him $50. “But that was bill money, you know? So I was short, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it up. This is amazing, thank you so much.”

Leslie wanted to introduce me to her husband, whom I recognized from my earlier wanderings around the store. She told him what happened and he shook my hand and thanked me. “I pray every day for God to make me humble,” he said. “And things always work out.”

Leslie and her husband, Otho

Leslie told me that our encounter had made a big impact on her and that she would never forget it, ever. She hugged me again and wished me comfort in grieving the loss of my mother.

I didn’t end up buying anything at Goodwill today. I’m promising myself that next time I’m going to start with pink.