It was a small gesture, a moment of kindness shown by a cashier at a local store, but for one Ohio family going through a challenging time this holiday season, the simple act had a profound impact.
Last weekend, Kimberly Grandinette and her 3-year-old son, Paul, visited a Meijer store in Springfield, Ohio, to pick up some groceries. In a Facebook post that went viral this week, Grandinette explained how they’d popped into the store while en route to the hospital, where her baby son, Remington, was being treated for an immune and kidney disorder.
At the check-out counter, the mom shared her family’s story with Kristen Clark, the employee ringing up their groceries.
“I was telling the cashier … that my infant son is in the hospital right now and that my 3-year-old is having a pretty rough time with all of the changes in routine and changes at home it is causing. Then my 3-year-old asked Kristen if he could help her ring our groceries,” Grandinette wrote in her post.
What happened next, the mom said, “warmed her heart.”
Clark invited Paul to come behind the register and help scan the coupons.
“She had him on her hip and was showing him how to scan the bar code,” Grandinette told ABC News. “It was a really sweet thing to do. He loved it … He plays register all the time at home, so it was really cool for him to do that in real life.”
Clark made her son “feel like a million bucks,” Grandinette said on Facebook.
“He skipped out of the store with a smile on his face. Thank you, Kristen, for making my son's day (and my day!) a bit brighter.”
To date, Grandinette’s moving Facebook post has racked up more than 150,000 likes.
This week, Meijer told ABC News that they were “proud to have incredible team members, like Kristen, who go out of their way to provide great customer service.”
“This is another reminder that compassion and kindness go a long way,” the company said.
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