I Shared Lunch With a Complete Stranger in Spirit of the Holidays

This week has been filled with anticipation for the weekend more than any this year for one reason and that's because it's Christmas. Everyone who celebrates Christmas loves the holiday because 'tis the season of giving and while I was out running errands getting my brain muscles going I had something great happen. I got to share a meal with a total stranger.

I was obviously brought up to not speak with strangers but while going to a popular Mexican restaurant I found a woman crying with a guide cane, she asked if I could buy her something to eat. Well I gave the obvious, but true, excuse that everyone uses and that was I didn't have cash on me. As I sat there at the table after ordering food I couldn't stop thinking about a conversation I had with my friend Kristin and how everyone always uses that excuse, "I don't have any cash".

I immediately left the table and went outside and asked that lady to come sit with me at my table and order whatever she wanted and I would pay for it if she was really hungry. She was so grateful. Now I am not begging for recognition but instead wanted to shine some light on Stefanie, that was her name. She was a widow whose husband died in 2016 from a blood clot just a few years after they moved to Lubbock from Alabama.

Her husband was a school teacher/coach and he became an assistant principal. Now that Stefanie was alone she was living pay check to pay check that she would get from the government. Also, she was a twin but her twin had passed years ago and she had a dog named Chiquita back at her home that she shared her time with.

We laughed and talked about our lives and what brought us to right there and then, I was just needing a picture of menudo and she was trying to make it through these tough times. Stefanie's husband passed away on December 26, 2016 and this season was was difficult for her because she always thought of him. We ate and she took her left over beef enchiladas with her and we parted ways, she was the best company I had made all year.

This simple lunch with a stranger really made me realize how lucky I was to have a family, even though we fight and argue, is still good and there. So next time you see someone in need don't be afraid to pull up a seat to your table and invite them to share in a meal. It doesn't necessarily have to be out of the holiday spirit but just a way to give back because I am not entirely sure if she in a way was a spirit of Christmas there to teach me a lesson but I did walk away with a new outlook on the holidays.