10 Summer Stories That Teach Us the Human Heart Has a Special Room for Compassion (USA Edition)

“I stopped by a farmers’ market and saw an older man selling homemade jam. Nobody seemed interested. He barely looked up when I asked about the flavors, and his answers were short. I bought a jar anyway and started walking away.

As I was leaving, a woman came running after me. ’Excuse me!’ she called. ’Did you just buy that jam?’

I nodded. Her face changed. ’Oh no... please don’t leave yet.’

She caught her breath and smiled through teary eyes. ’I’m his wife. I was in the restroom when you stopped by.’ She glanced back at the booth. ’He’d already decided this would be the last day he’d ever sell his jam. Nobody had bought a single jar all morning, and he was ready to pack everything up.’

Then the man got up, and quietly slipped a second jar into my bag and said, ’That one’s for your neighbor.’ I laughed because I’d never mentioned having one. He smiled and said, ’People who stop at empty booths usually think about other people too.’”

“When I was in summer camp we were lining up to buy things like sweets, shirts, etc at the camp shop. Since we were kids, most of us had just been given an amount of physical money by our parents to deposit in our ’accounts,’ so if we weren’t keeping track of everything we bought, which was the case of most kids, we didn’t really know how much we had left.

It was the second weekend and I had already bought a hoodie and a bunch of sweets. I was in line to buy water bottles and some chocolates and candy. When it reached my turn, the lady working at the shop said I didn’t have enough money left to buy everything. With that I started separating some things to leave behind, I paid and left to find my friends.

A few moments later a boy came rushing after me and handed me a bag. He said he was behind me in line and saw what had happened, and when I opened the bag, there was literally every single thing I had left behind.”

“One summer day during my lunchtime walk about 8 years ago, I saw this homeless man laying on the ground, right in the street. Not on the sidewalk, in the street. I didn’t know what to do, or if I would’ve done anything at all.

I was scared that he’d get run over, but I froze. I was useless. Turns out I didn’t need to do anything. This very assertive woman runs up to him, money in her hand and tells him to get up out of the street.

’You don’t need to do that’ (what I gathered from her comment was that he was begging and was ignored, so he just gave up and lay down in the street) ’Get up!!’ And he did! Took her money and started to cry.

My heart broke. But she told him: ’It’s ok, it’s ok, ain’t no shame in accepting help, I’ve been where you are.’ I was in awe of that woman.”

“Well, let us see: Used to work in a position where I went to many homes, some impoverished. Bought many people lunch or food.

Summer saw kids walking up the street hot so told them to wait a minute and handed out popsicles.”

“I have a nose ring.

In the summer of 2010, I was standing at the counter of a Taco Bell. I was 21, and the young lady who took my order must have been 16. She says, ’I haven’t seen a dude wearing a nose ring before.’ I made a joke saying like, ’Well, you’re not looking in the right places!’

She then just shrugged her shoulders, locked eye contact with me and replied, ’Well. You’re beautiful.’ She then walked away, and someone else handed me my food.

I still think about that every now and again.”

“When I was 12, we were homeless for a while. My mom would often bring us by bus across town to the area where her friends lived to visit, and we would walk the rest of the way after getting off the bus.

One day, we were tired from walking in the Texas summer heat, and went into a Burger King to sit down. My mom was sitting at the table with us counting change, trying to figure out how much food she could buy us, when an employee came up to us with a tray full of food.

Someone had seen us counting change, and purchased us food. What they didn’t know was, my brother and sister and I hadn’t eaten in over a day.

That small act of kindness meant the world to me and it has stayed with me as a reminder to help others in need.”

“I was lucky to get an internship as a controls engineer this summer near the Detroit area through a close family friend’s son. As such, family friends took me in for the summer, have let me stay at their house, not needing to pay rent, not needing to do my own laundry or cook.

Heck, they give me money sometimes for things I buy for myself. I love tea and bought myself some. They gave me money since they said I should have just written it on the grocery list.

This one time they left for a small vacation and gave me some cash for groceries and if I wanted to eat out. I only used 1/3 of it and gave the rest back. They gave me back the money and told me since I didn’t use it all, I could keep it and use it for something else.

Hence, they are so nice it hurts. And I have no idea how to show my gratitude back to them. I’ve been wracking my brain, thinking of ways. They are near retirement, and have no need for money, etc. They want a camper, since they had one when they were younger, but a camper is just out of the question.

I’ve helped with yard work, computer things, etc., but I just don’t feel at all if it’s 1/16th of what they’ve done for me. And it’s really rustling my jimmies. I’m definitely going to get a super duper nice card I think for sure, and trying to get some semblance of my thoughts onto the page, but that seems to little also.

They really like ice cream and I had some brought up from Oberweis which they loved, except the closest one near here is 30 min away. Maybe I’ll get some or bring them there, but it still doesn’t feel like enough.”

“When my son was about two, I took him shoe shopping because he outgrew his shoes. It was during summer, it was hot outside even though it was only morning. The parking lot was a bit small and we had to park a little further.

I didn’t have my carrier or stroller that day because I thought I would be able to park close to the store... We went to the store, he tried a few pair of shoes. We bought two pairs because they were on sale and he needed them.

I hadn’t planned ahead correctly because ADHD... I forgot to bring a reusable bag, and didn’t think to ask for one when I paid the shoe. It was now time to get back to the car. My son, being a toddler, exhausted and overstimulated by our shopping trip started to fuss, then cry. He wanted mama to carry him...

I took him in my arms while carrying the two boxes of shoes. I didn’t have enough arms or strength or whatever... I felt doomed and started to feel a meltdown coming, tears coming up my eyes, talking to myself and to my son to try and get back to the car. It felt like an impossible task.

Then out of nowhere, a woman came to me and handed me a small reusable bag. She told me to take it, that she didn’t need it, but that she saw that I did. I tried to ask her how to give it back to her. But she rapidly went away while telling me to have a good day.

I used the bag, got to the car with my son in my arms and cried, happy tears. It made my day, my week and even more. I will never forget that stranger, that woman who saw me struggling so bad and did something about it.”

“When I was in college, I worked at a seafood/ice cream shack by the beach while home for the summer. One day it was stormy and unseasonably cold.

A little boy and his grandfather came by looking for hot cocoa, which we didn’t have, and I was like, ’Oh you could go to Dunks down the road though!’ And they came back after their Dunks run with a hot chocolate for lil ol me working out front all by myself while the cooks in back ignored me.

That meant so much to me because that job was a NIGHTMARE and I cried SO OFTEN and so many people (including my coworkers) could be so mean and belligerent.”

“I try and do something good every day. But at least every 90 days I’ll do something out of the ordinary like...

...I bought an air conditioner for a single mom and son at Target last Aug/Sept. I overheard their conversation, and they looked like they were in the middle of some tough times, and we live in Florida.”