Mother of four, Ciara worked with her engineer husband Bruce as a part-time school teacher. She had assisted a homeless man on her usual shopping run, and the man had confessed to Ciara the next morning.
Ciara was leading a normal life, attending to her children while her spouse was at work and then continuing on with her part-time teaching career.
While Ciara was on her daily grocery shopping, she was drinking her coffee, while she was running around with her list of groceries.
Then she saw a homeless man, outside of the store who was looking inside. She watched the old man for a while, then she started to approach him.
“Excuse me, sir. Are you hungry?” Ciara asked the homeless man.
“More than you can imagine,” the homeless man said.
As Ciara invited the man to pick some groceries with her, “I don’t have any money, Miss,” the homeless man said. “I’ll be fine.”
“It’s on me. My name is Ciara,” Ciara said.
“My name is Martin,” the homeless man said, as his eyes were teary.
The man was not putting much into the shopping cart, as Ciara already filled the cart with her children’s wished groceries.
“Tell me about your children,” the homeless man said.
Ciara talked about her twins, and how much they were obsessed with football. They were slim, but desired to be filled with muscles. Then she talked about her baby, Emily. Then her oldest, Jemma, an eight-year-old bookworm.
“They all sound lovely,” Martin responded, as he helped Ciara with the groceries.
“You’re a great mother.”
The next morning, Ciara went to the grocery store again, as she needed milk because she gave all the milk she bought to Martin. And same as yesterday, Martin was standing outside, but he was wearing a military outfit this time.
“There you are,” Martin smiled.
“What happened?” Ciara asked.
“I’m here to buy you some milk,” he smiled. “You gave me both of them yesterday.”
“How?”
“I’m not the same man you met yesterday. Your kindness inspired me to reclaim a part of my life I thought was lost forever.”
Then Martin told his story to Ciara, how he was a veteran, and how he lost himself while trying to adopt his civilian life. Martin explained that her kindness had lit a fire he once lost.
He immediately went to the Veterans Affairs Office. “I’ve avoided the place for months,” Martin said. “I think I just couldn’t stand the thought of being back in such a volatile field, even though there’s no way I’d be sent out at my age.”
“I’m going to work with men who come back. The Office is trying out a new program where these men get the counseling they need before going home — to try and adjust better.”
“Just promise you’ll keep spreading kindness, Ciara. It’s more powerful than you know. Let your children see it, too.” Then he went on.
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