Giving Angels: Anonymous Donors Pay Off Kmart Layaway Accounts

Every tear you never cried is waiting for you… and they’re heavy.

I say this sometimes to coaching clients, a reassurance of sorts that the surge of emotions they experience as we dig deeper into what’s not working in their lives, is normal. We are talking about the hardest of the hard parts of their lives. These are often the best kept secrets, the lowest lows, the patterns that that they’ve been unable to break. We are working on the things that hurt and almost always that these women haven’t taken the time or energy or perhaps had the resources to release. It’s all in there, waiting for its turn.

There is little that I find more disorienting than sitting on my couch, sobbing into a bowl of cereal, and hearing the words that I have so often offered to comfort others whispered back from somewhere deep within my own knowing. Every tear you never cried is waiting for you… and they’re heavy.

I can’t get anyone to tell me exactly what a “hot mess” is but I’m pretty sure that this still isn’t it. I’ve just cried more than an hour’s worth of the biggest, heaviest tears. A mess? Yes, absolutely. But the bedhead, pile of snotty tissues, and the cat drinking the remaining almond milk out of my cereal bowl are decidedly not hot.

My morning was completely derailed by random acts of kindness by strangers, and they weren’t even being nice to me. Awesome, right?

This not-hot mess started with this story:

“The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.

He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.

“She told him, ‘No, I’m paying for it,’” recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. “He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn’t, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears.”

She paid off around 50 layaway accounts, handed out some cash, and paid for a couple of people’s purchases before leaving the store that day. All of which she did in honor of her husband who died recently.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Summerannie M.

2:35AM PST on Jan 22, 2013

Love it! thank you.

January 22
send a green star

Silvia G.

5:26PM PST on Jan 2, 2012

Thank you!

January 2
send a green star

Sally S.

9:40AM PST on Dec 29, 2011

Thank you, to all the Lay away Angels that made Christmas perfect for many families..... Who ever you all are will be blessed for your Secret Santa ( Much Love and thanks to those that have not said it )

December 29
send a green star

Judith C.

2:39PM PST on Dec 27, 2011

Some people think that it is the true meaning of Christmas to give to others,I don't mean presents that they don't truly need but something that they require.Maybe this feeling can spread beyond Christmas?

December 27
send a green star

Kirsten B.

5:38AM PST on Dec 23, 2011

Wonderful piece Christy.
I only managed to stem the tears because my little one was running in and out.
May you have a wonderful Christmas and an incredibly successful New Year.

December 23
send a green star

aj E.

11:47AM PST on Dec 20, 2011

cool.

December 20
send a green star

Sue M.

2:57PM PST on Dec 18, 2011

thanks.

December 18
send a green star

Beverly G.

2:06PM PST on Dec 18, 2011

meowy chrismtas all

Jade H.

1:01PM PST on Dec 18, 2011

When I was a teenager (LONG time ago...LOL) my mom's response to my insistence that there was something I just "have to have!" was a saying I just hated: "You think you have a problem because you have no shoes, until you meet someone who has no feet!" I finally got the message as I got older, and take great joy in helping out whenever I can with friends as well as people I don't know. It was the driving force in becoming a Hospice Volunteer many years ago - and I am still grateful to be of service wherever and whenever I can. THAT'S what it's all about when you figure out there are no divisions and we really are all ONE. Blessed Be!

Joan S.

12:37PM PST on Dec 18, 2011

As I sit here with tears running down my cheeks I think of my friend Ricki and how she continues to reach out to me and give me little things I don't have. Last night she took me out to a lovely restaurant and then to a Christmas show. I am continually overwhelmed by her generosity and every time I thank her she says how she has money and is so glad to share it with a friend. Sometimes I feel it's my karma because 20 years ago when I had extra money and living in NYC I gave a homeless guy my sleeping bag and would buy easy food things and hand them out. Even today if I can I pick up a box of granola bars and hand them out to the vets begging on the street corners.

It's the good people that will save this world. The kind and compassionate, the givers not the takers. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart.