This did:
A stranger's gift refuels her faith in the world
By Elizabeth Leland
eleland@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2011
Erin Warchol sat in her car and cried. She was an hour from home Monday, nearly out of gas in Belmont.
She had forgotten her wallet, and the gas station attendant refused to accept a credit card over the phone from her husband.
She heard the beep-beep-beep of a big white work truck backing up toward her with two men inside.
The driver motioned for her to lower her window. Warchol, 29, was already upset, and now two strange men were approaching.
She hesitated.
The passenger got out.
Honey, he asked her, are you out of gas?
Almost.
And then he did the most unexpected thing. He handed her a receipt from the gas station for $25 worth of gas,
and said: I just figured you needed some help.
Warchol was stunned. She asked for his name and address to repay him, but he said that wasn't necessary.
Can I give you a hug?
That, he did accept. Then off he drove.
"He was such an angel to my day," she said. She went into the store and asked the attendants whether they knew him.
She said they told her they thought he was her husband.
"I've never wanted for anything in my life," Warchol said. "It just opened my eyes to what that could be like in a very minute manner. In that instant, I really needed help. I didn't have to ask him."
Because he wouldn't accept repayment, she donated $50 Tuesday to a leukemia fundraiser. Then she called the Observer,
because she wanted the rest of us to know that with so many bad things going on in the world, a good thing happened.
She mentioned that her Samaritan's name was on the receipt. Craig Griffin. The Observer located him in Alabama.
He's an electrical technician and, no, he doesn't go around handing out money.
On Monday morning, he said, it just felt like the right thing to do
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...her-faith.html