This past weekend I went home for Easter dinner with family and my grandparents told a very interesting story relevant to my blog. Strangers ultimately decided to pay for their check at a restaurant. I have heard several stories about kind strangers who pay for another couple’s check in my research into this topic, but I never expected to see it happen to someone I know!
My grandparents experienced this random act of kindness about a week ago at an average Italian restaurant, and frankly weren’t sure how to respond to it. My grandfather asked the waiter for the check and he responded with a simple, “It’s been taken care of.” My grandparents were very confused at the outset, wondering if there had been a mistake, perhaps the chef had messed up their order in a way they were unaware and covered the expenses. They then noticed a man across the room looking at them with a small smile who raised his drink to them, indicating that he had picked up the check. He was sitting with his wife and they both looked pleasantly on at my grandparents.
Now maybe my grandparents aren’t typical people, but they explained that the exchange made them feel a little awkward. They were grateful for the kindness, for sure, but weren’t really sure how to respond in this situation. They wondered if they looked poor or helpless in some way. They decided to walk up to the couple and thank them. In conversation, they discovered that the other couple, who was also on the older side but not as old as my grandparents, were the parents of five children, lived a few towns over, and that they like to periodically pay for others’ meals as a simple act of kindness.
The awkwardness was amplified when my grandparents said they live in Montgomery, which has gained the reputation for being a rather wealthy neighborhood, especially in comparison to where the other couple lived. Although my grandparents live modestly and are unlike the typical Montgomery resident, they couldn’t help but feel a little guilty and awkward that the couple had paid for their meal, on top of the fact that the couple has five children as compared to their two.
I may be cynical here, pointing out where acts of kindness go wrong, but I just find it interesting how sometimes acts of kindness turn out more beneficial to the giver than the recipient. I doubt that the other couple’s happiness was actually diminished by finding out my grandparents are from Montgomery. It’s not always about being kind to whoever “deserves” it the most because how can you really make these decisions anyway? Overall, I think this story just shows that acts of kindness are more complex than they might seem on the surface…they aren’t all about making someone else happy in that particular moment. And yes my grandparents felt confused and awkward temporarily, but they took it for what it was and there was certainly no harm done.
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