Woman spent 20 minutes helping an older lady locate her lost phone at a store — she wasn't ready for the text the lady sent her

Being so busy with our thoughts and lives, we forget to look around and extend kindness. The simplest act goes a long way and often leaves a rewarding experience. It’s not every day that we come across people we can help. So when we do, it is a privilege that we should reach out and accept. A woman who goes by u/rularendition on Reddit revealed that she was casually shopping at a thrift store when she came across a fellow customer who seemed troubled. When she learned she had lost her phone, she decided to help her look around. The duo together located it and the woman was left with a heartwarming text in return. 

“While thrifting, I overheard a panicked older lady who lost her phone,” the woman recalled. She wanted to help and so approached the shopper and introduced herself. “I asked for her number and we looped around the entire store twice while I dialed,” she wrote. The duo spent quite a few minutes looking for the device at the store. “After 20 minutes, we tried her vehicle—Sucess!” the post read. The elderly woman was so grateful that she “cried and hugged me.” “Her simple gratitude was just beautiful,” the woman said. However, that wasn’t all. The shopper left her a heartwarming text too. 

The message read, “Hi ___. This is _____. You helped me find my cell phone.” The elderly woman further acknowledged her "extreme kindness" and the time she took to help her. She added, “I know you said, ‘We are supposed to help people,’ but very few do. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. Blessings to you!” The woman was delighted to receive the text from the lady. In a comment, she mentioned that the store seemed to be “conservative” and people seemed to be judging her for her looks but it all turned around after the encounter. 

“I walked into a conservative shop. Here I was dressed as a punk chick with a backward hat, motorcycle helmet, wearing a homosexual tendencies cutoff tank, loads of tattoos, right out of the gym and people in that store had been cutting me a wide berth,” the woman revealed. However, her exchange with the woman and her kind gesture turned people’s perspective around. “I think what really got to me was how the environment shifted. After this? People smiled at me and met my eyes. The whole store felt elevated and brighter. Might be hypersensitivity on my part but the whole place felt elevated,” she remarked. 

u/Millanzzie03 said, “It always nice to see people helping out one another. It gives me hope in humanity!” u/LeoLion2931 added, “Helping a person in need seems like a low bar for such praise but sometimes these days it really just hits because some people really are just missing that kindness and you were that kind human for her.” u/Cerridwen1981 remarked, “You’re a beautiful person. Not many people would have bothered sadly. It sometimes takes so little to help someone and brighten their day but it can mean so much.”