I have the best experience to share with everyone about….. HOME DEPOT

I should have shared it when it happened but I have to be honest and say that I have become an expert procrastinator.  I’m not proud of it but it is the truth for right now and I’m honestly going to try to change this about myself.

I have to give you the background on this story before I begin….   My physical therapy sessions had been suspended last year because of the politics/policies of my health insurance.  I was told by my therapist to go to my primary care physician in January or February 2014 and ask him to make a new referral. Blah, Blah, Blah…..

So in an effort to keep my progress forward moving, I asked my friend Mike if he thought that he could build parallel bars in my garage.  He felt confident that he could so we headed off to Home Depot to investigate materials, etc.  Mike has been helping me do some much needed repair in and around my home so we have made many trips prior to this particular one.

Before looking for the parallel bar material, we had a long list of other items to get for the projects that were already in progress at my house.  While we were in the lumber section of the store, a gentleman by the name of Rob  asked if we needed assistance.  He was extremely knowledgeable and had suggestions/recommendations for any questions we had from painting to equipment items.  We had been in the store for a very long time and yet Rob continued to eagerly assist us.

Once we had most of our listed items in the basket, Mike began to explain what he was trying to build for me and asked Rob what his thoughts were on the subject of building the parallel bars.  Rob suggested that Mike use pipe and elbow fittings, etc.  Rob asked me to stand up so that he could see how tall I was and that would help determine how tall the bars needed to be.  Mike helped me to stand up and while holding onto him and one of the aisle shelves, they measured the distance from the floor up to where the bar would be for me to hold on.  Having done this, Mike and Rob were off to the pipe cutter section of the store to get the materials cut and loaded onto a cart for us to take to the register.

Rob and Mike were talking as we were making our way to the register and I began to thank Rob for being so kind and so helpful.  I asked him for his last name because I wanted to nominate him for employee of the month.  He laughed a little and said he couldn’t be employee of the month because he was the store’s District Manager.   Mike and I laughed with him and we thanked him some more for his help.

It was our turn at the register and the cashier was ringing up my items and when she provided me with my total I was a little confused.  I told her that that couldn’t be right and that I thought she didn’t ring something up.  She said that it was the right amount because all of the materials that we were purchasing to build the parallel bars were being given to us for free.

I immediately became overwhelmed with emotion.  Random acts of kindness will almost always bring tears to my eyes and this time was no different.  The cashier noticed me tearing up and she said, “Please don’t cry because you are going to make me cry!”  Well I turned around and thank Rob again but he had disappeared just that quickly.  That made this experience even more wonderful.  This man blessed my life with his kindness and he did it selflessly.  He didn’t do it to be noticed or to have us make a fuss over it in front of others.  This is how I measured his sincerity and I want to emulate is actions in my life.

I am so thankful for this blessing.  More than the financial blessing (that pipe wasn’t cheap-haha), it was the kindness of his heart that I am so thankful for.  I was one customer among millions that go through the Home Depot doors and yet Rob connected with us on a personal level and decided that he would do something to help me in my efforts to walk again…..

I get so emotional each time that I think on this and so again I say…  Thank you Rob – Thank you Palm Springs, California Home Depot Store!