Just ask Brooke Ochoa of Louise, Texas, who was walking into a restaurant for lunch when she saw an elderly lady walking toward her.
The 30-year-old waited to hold the door open for women – an act she considered to be mere politeness.
Little did she know, however, that seconds later, a remark from the lady would make just seconds later would spark a chain of events causing her to go viral.
Cre image: Facebook/Brooke Ochoa Hepburn
Brooke and the woman entered the restaurant at the same time, but Brooke overheard the lady asking for a “table for one”.
Realizing that the lady was set to dine alone, Brooke approached her and bestowed yet another act of kindness. According to Today, Brooke went to the woman’s table and asked: “I’m eating by myself too would you like to have lunch together?”
The lady named Dolores not only accepted Brooke’s offer, but she was positively delighted for the company. According to ABC 6, the two immediately became friends and had a long chat during their meal.
Cre: Facebook/Brooke Ochoa Hepburn
Dolores revealed to Brooke that she’d been going through a tough time lately. “Come to find out, she spent the last decade living with her mom, who recently passed away, and her aunt, who recently was put into a nursing home,” Brooke wrote in a later Facebook post about the encounter.
“She has been having a hard time being alone.”
She continued, “She kept smiling and saying thank you for listening to me, which made me smile too! Her words healed my heart the same way I healed her lonely heart.
Brooke and Dolores enjoyed their conversation so much that they agreed to have lunch together every Thursday from that point on.
In a later update, shortly after they first met, Brooke announced that Dolores had passed away, making the fact that she was able to brighten her life all the more special.
*UPDATE* *UPDATE* *UPDATE* Delores passed away soon thereafter this post. I am delighted that it still touches so…
Posted by Brooke Ochoa on Thursday, 6 August 2015
If nothing else, this chance conversation is proof that the smallest gesture of goodwill can literally change a life. Neither of these women knew that Dolores’ days on this earth were numbered, but they found comfort in each other, and that’s what matters.
If more people thought and acted like Brooke, the world would be a much nicer place!
