Random acts of kindness not only make somebody else’s day, but also add joy and happiness to our own lives.
Here’s the perfect story that of one such acts that’s not up on social media but witnessed by our correspondent of how a group of cashiers at Woodland Hospital pooled in money to help a farmer in distress, as she ran short of 200 rupee, to get back home, after paying the hospital bill.
The elderly woman of Mawber village near Smit was attending to her ailing teenage daughter, but was left with one thousand rupees after clearing a total bill of Rs 32,406. What she needed was another 200 rupees to get back home.
Despite having a smart card or the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) card, the farmer found it a huge challenge coming from a poor family. A mother of 10 children, one of her daughters suffered severe burn injury on her arm and needed a surgery.
A week after the surgery, the total hospital bill amounted to Rs 87,406 but with MHIS giving the patient a benefit of Rs 55,000 the bill she owed was Rs 32,406.
Slowly reaching out to her purse as the cashier explained to her about the breakup and the benefits of MHIS, the farmer nodded weakly knowing that the expense was huge and still had to figure out on how to manage her travel expense to reach home.
Mawber is approximately 39 kilometres from Shillong city and a shared cab would cost her Rs 1200.
While paying the cashier, the farmer murmured “I’m left with a thousand rupees and I don’t know how I will get back home.” The weak and painful voice of the mother definitely left a numb feeling on the cashier at the billing counter.
“Take this 500 rupees Mei (mother) so that you can go back home” was the response that came from the cashier. It took the farmer moments to fathom what she heard as she looked at the smiling faces of the cashier at the billing section.
“Why are you giving me money?” she asked. The cashier who was joined along with the others inside the billing counter in chorus said, “We want to help you.”
When she had slowly stretched out of her shawl to accept the money, but still running short of words to thank them, she managed to respond to our correspondent, “It’s a miracle because with this money I now have a little of extra money to buy a cup of tea. They are God’s child and can’t thank them enough for helping me.”
All the cashiers shied away from the camera and said they don’t want any attention but were happy to help the poor woman. “When Mei said that she didn’t have much money left to go back home we just couldn’t ignore it that’s why we felt that we could help in whatever way we could,” said the cashier.
The farmer then agreed to have a picture taken as she completed the remaining formalities at the billing counter.
