Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

In a world where bad news and sad stories often dominate the news, it’s nice to appreciate the little things that can make a person’s day.

I was done shopping the other day and my groceries were on the belt. I was the next one after the cashier was finishing up with a blind gentleman. He was having trouble with one of his cards and the cashier was helping him.

She put all his groceries in three different bags and then into a shopping cart. It took them a long time to finish up because he asked for cash back. Then the gentleman asked the cashier to tell him what each bill was. Two 20s and a 10. All this was going on with a line that was getting backed up.

The cashier put his bags in the shopping cart and one of the bags ripped so she had to stop and put the groceries in a new bag. At this time there was somebody behind me who would put all her groceries on the belt.

In the meantime, I bumped into a senior citizen who I used to perform for and we chatted for a bit while the blind gentleman was getting situated. She gave me a mascot of her son who died of a drug overdose, and when she spoke of him she was very emotional.

We chatted for a while and then she left, but the blind gentleman’s transaction was still going on. The woman behind me was very patient and we also exchanged a smile and said something about the weather.

I’m going into it now for about five minutes and I couldn’t get over the easy-going patience of the cashier. We even started speaking about the woman’s son who overdosed and discussed some other situations where a young person died from a drug overdose.

The blind gentleman was almost ready to go out with his new bag and his change situation taken care of.

It just took a simple stop at the grocery store to see some genuine caring going on right in the heart of our City of Somerville. Seems that we complain a lot about the streets and the bikes but we don’t stop to acknowledge when something positive happens.

I’m ending this story with part of the message that was on the woman’s son’s prayer card that the lady gave me. My 15 minutes in the store was an adventure in kindness.

“Although we loved you dearly, we couldn’t make you stay.”