Hope Afterall?

I took my grandmother to the bank to tend to some business. After waiting maybe 1/2 hour to see a banker we're told they can't do anything for us.
On the way out she says she needs to use the restroom. The bank doesn't have one of course. So we walk to the the nearby Wal-Mart. Men's room is closed for cleaning (she's in a wheelchair and can't go in by herself). So we go nearby to the McDonald's. The stall in the men's room is locked. So we're waiting outside watching people come and go, but nobody comes out of the stall.
After a while a young man, maybe about 10, comes out and motions to the ladies' room door. "Do you need someone to open that?" I explained that, no, I was waiting for the guy to come out of the stall. The young gentleman went back into the men's room, then came out and said "there's nobody in there" and held the door for us. I tried the door again and it was still locked. He said, "yeah, it's locked, but there's nobody in there. I checked." Bless his heart, the boy gets down on the floor of the McDonald's bathroom and crawls under the door to unlock it for us.
As we were on our way out he was there emptying his tray with an older man (dad, brother, doesn't matter) and I said, "you're my hero, thanks again." He smiled and held the door for us to get out of the restaurant.
Somebody's raising their kid right. So thank you, young man, for putting a little shine on what was shaping up to be a crappy day, and thank you this kid's parents for understanding the importance of raising children with the ability and class to restore decency to our sad, selfish society. My hat is off to you.

Comments

  1. Minor HeroJanuary 25, 2018 at 4:14 PM

    I always thought there was something a little weird about the way this kid reacted when I thanked him. In retrospect I realize that, the way he went in there and immediately deduced that the stall was empty and slid underneath as though it wasn't his first time, it may well be that, in a harmless little boy prank, he had locked the stall himself and slid out underneath. Not that I am mad at him for it (if in fact that was the case, though I like to think it wasn't). If nothing else, he realized that the prank was causing a major inconvenience for people, and so he wanted to undo it, to rectify the situation. Either way I appreciate what he did and I still remember the hassle of that day, bringing Martha to the bank only to be told that they couldn't do anything for us because she didn't have a driver's license (she literally DIDN'T HAVE ONE. She was 99 years old and didn't drive anymore, so hadn't renewed it in years), and then the emergency of her having to go to the bathroom, and then that on top of it.
    Then again, I don't remember but it's possible that the kid went in and came out while we were waiting, which means he didn't lock the stall because it was locked before he went in. In the "anything's possible" sort of way I like to look at things, he could have been there for some time (they were leaving the same time as us and apparently had eaten there, not just used the restroom) so he could have gone in earlier, before we got there, and pulled his prank. But like I said, if that's the case, he at least had the decency to undo what he had done, which goes to show he didn't want to cause harm to anyone, he's just being a kid.

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