Financially struggling dad taking daughters to school had car run out of fuel—gas station worker's gesture left him speechless
A small act of generosity might give a person hope to keep going. A dad who was going through a rough patch in his life experienced that when his car ran out of fuel mid way one morning. He was on his way to drop off his two daughters at school and didn't have money to pay for fuel. The entire family was in tears when the car stopped, as they couldn't think of a way out of it. But then a petrol attendant turned their day around with his generosity, per a private Facebook post by the dad, Justin Roderick, according to Good Things Guy.
"This morning, something happened that broke me, humbled me and gave me hope, all at once. Our family has been walking through one of the toughest financial seasons of our lives," Roderick wrote. The family had sold everything they owned to keep going. "Every cent, every drop of petrol put in with prayer and hope that it will keep the wheels turning." Even on that day, the dad hoped that his car had enough fuel to get his daughters, aged nine and eleven, to school. But the car gave out during traffic and the entire family was really upset. The girls were crying and his older daughter was quite sad because she would miss her school outing if she didn't get to school.
"Then I hear my little girl’s voice say, 'Justy, I've got R20 ($1.11)' – which I had given her to buy a cool drink on her school outing. My heart sank even more," Roderick expressed. He had no way to contact anyone as he had no recharge on his phone. So the family decided to walk to the gas station together. It was over a kilometer away from where their car had stopped. "I approached the first petrol attendant I saw. I held out the R20 in coins and asked if he could please help me get a little bottle filled… just enough to get my girls to school 2 km away." The man asked him to go to the attendant on pump 6, who filled a 5-litre bottle for the man. The dad tried to hand over the coins, but the man reassured him that the first attendant had paid for the petrol.
"In that moment… it hit me so hard. I was standing there with my two girls, holding R20 in coins, overwhelmed and broken… and here was this man, a petrol attendant, a complete stranger who was filling a full 5L out of his own pocket." Roderick was overwhelmed with emotion and was looking for the man to thank him when he came out of a store. "He reached out his hand as if to shake mine, but slipped something into it." As the family was going back to their car, the dad noticed that it was an R100 ($5.55) note. "No words. No attention. No pride. He didn’t hold it out for all to see. Just quiet, sacrificial kindness from someone who likely doesn’t have much himself," the dad went on. "He didn’t just bless me with petrol. He gave me hope. He didn’t just get my car going. He helped carry my heart this morning."
Even though Roderick didn't want to share his situation online, he felt that he had to talk about the attendant's kind act and applaud him for it. "Because what this man did for me… deserves to be seen. It deserves to be honored." The dad went to the Shell Bryanston Convenience Centre, on Winnie Mandela Drive and looked for the man, Warren Bhebhe, to thank him. "I'm a world apart from where I was yesterday. The endless, crushing stress of trying to keep my family afloat has been replaced with something I haven't felt in so long — hope, light and an unshakeable faith in humanity," Roderick pointed out.