Written by – Megan Watson
Have you seen the Facebook post about the man leaving coins at the laundromat? I didn’t actually see the post itself. Rather my mother-in-law sent it to me in an email recently. She and I are not on the same side of the political spectrum and it has caused some tension in my relationship with my in-laws. I guess to help alleviate the tension, she decided that she would send me good news stories occasionally. After a few times of her doing so, I also began looking for good news stories and sending them to her. I am eternally grateful to her for taking this approach, both because it maintains our thirty-plus year relationship and because it has shown some light and goodness when so many things seem so bleak.
I cannot get out of my head the story she sent me this week, about the man and the laundromat. If you haven’t seen it, the shortened version is there was an elderly man who was in the laundromat and noticed that a young mother did not have enough money to do all her loads. As she struggled to decide what to wash and not wash, he walked over and put a few quarters in the machine and told her it was on him. She was stunned and said a quiet thank you. When he couldn’t stop thinking about that mother, he started going back every Monday morning, before people arrived and filling one or two machines with quarters, leaving a note that said “Loads on me, stay warm.” He started receiving messages back “You saved me today, bless you” and local Facebook pages talked about the “laundry angel” with notes of appreciation like “Someone paid for my scrubs tonight. Whoever you are, you kept me going.” But then he notes, something amazing happened. He walked in one Monday morning to put quarters in and someone, or multiple people, had beat him there. The machines were full with multiple notes “We’re in this together,” “For the next one.” One night while he was doing his own laundry, a young kid dropped some quarters in a machine and walked away. When he called the kid back, mentioning he forgot his own load, the teenage boy said “No, sir, it’s not for me.”
This one little act of kindness then expanded to all three laundromats in this small town. The machines have been funded by local churches, the mayor and local neighbors.
Of course I cried as I read this story (honestly I’m crying now as I relay it). My only response to my mother-in-law (other than it made me cry) was “This. We just need more of This.”
In this country where there is so much anger, hate and talking of “the other” can we all just please take a step back and just do one small act of kindness. One thing that makes another person’s day. One thing that sticks with them. One small thing that may become a bigger thing. One thing that may help more people than just that one initial person. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they believe. They are a person sharing the bus with you, a person working hard to do best by their family, a person struggling to buy groceries, a person deciding if they have what they need to keep their baby in clean clothes. They are your neighbor and one small act of kindness may mean more than the world to them.