I'm a little embarrassed, but I was on receiving end of a good deed today. [View all]
I don't talk about it much, but I have an incurable disease known as IPF (or Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis). It means that I have developed scar tissue on my lungs which restricts my breathing. You wouldn't have a clue if you saw me sitting on a park bench. I've slimmed down to my ideal weight, hair is thinning a bit but not bald, and all things considered I look pretty good. However I can't walk from one room to the next without getting short of breath.
So, when the Mrs. asks me to run to the store and pick up a few things, I'm more than happy to go, hang my handicapped placard on my rearview mirror and grab one of those electric shopping cards and get what we need. So today I had a pretty full cart and got into the checkout line. There was a woman ahead of me of didn't look a whole lot younger than me. She had loaded her groceries onto the belt and was waiting for the woman ahead of her to finish paying. She turned around to me and said: "Here, let me load your groceries onto the belt so you don't have to get up" and proceeded to do so.
Some people seem to think that if you don't have an obvious handicap you are riding in a card because you are lazy, or having fun. Others just assume if you are in a cart it is because you need one. The woman ahead of me in line was one of the latter. I thanked her for her concern and for assuming not all handicaps have to be visible to be real.
So thank you unknown shopper for being helpful to a stranger.