Community
Being Neighborly | A load of help in the Costco parking lot
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On a sunny September day, Kris Leshea was trying to load groceries and other items into the back of her truck in the Costco parking lot. Leshea doesn’t make small trips to Costco, so it was quite a shopping haul.
“I don’t go often,” she said of her Costco trip. “I hold off a few months, so when I do go it’s a lot, and so it was a cartful.”
On top of that, Leshea — an Air Force veteran and mom to young children — was experiencing quite a bit of pain that day. Getting in and out of the back of the pickup strains her back, knees and hips. Loading up the groceries was a struggle.
The Gig Harbor Costco.
Someone noticed. A stranger came along and asked if he could help. Leshea hesitated to accept, telling the stranger that she didn’t want to hold him up if he had to be somewhere.
“He said that he had a truck too, and he knew how hard it could be,” she said. “We talked, and he was friendly.”
Leshea was thankful for his willingness to help.
“He didn’t have to do that,” she said. “He could have just walked past me, but he took the time out of his day to stop and help me.”
The gesture may seem small to some, but Leshea said it was huge for her. Getting a little bit of help can make the day more manageable.
For her, it was one more item on the list of things that lift her spirits. She said that she has recently begun focusing on positive things.
With everything going on in the world, and in the news cycle, Leshea said that she has begun to make a conscious effort to find things that she is thankful for in life.
“It has weighed on me the past week and a half, and I took a break from social media, and decided that I would scout out reasons to be thankful for what I have. Even if it seems small, like this, it’s on the list,” she said.
She didn’t get the name of the stranger, but he was wearing a Marine Corps hat and helped her load the things into her truck between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Sept. 16.