Mom Sees Employee’s Interaction With Elderly Woman, Finds Manager

<p>During a hurried trip to Target with her two young children in tow&comma; a mother picked a checkout line she thought would be quick&period; After a moment of distraction&comma; however&comma; she looked up to see the cashier&rsquo&semi;s behavior toward an elderly woman and quickly descended to track down his manager&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zero and Bigler&comma; an Indianapolis mother of two&comma; was hoping her Tuesday trip to Target would be a quick one&period; Her husband Matt was sick&comma; so she was flying solo with her kids in tow and just wanted to get in and out as fast as possible&period; That would all change&comma; though&comma; when what she had witnessed in the checkout line prompted her to find a manager&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>« Yesterday&comma; Matt was sick&period; I picked up Archie from the sitter and Eloise from school and decided to run to Target for a few things&period; I&rsquo&semi;d hoped to be in and out quickly&comma; » Sarah recalled&period; « I found a line with just one person ahead of me and began organizing my items on the conveyor&period; With only one shopper in front of her&comma; Sarah thought she&rsquo&semi;d check out quickly&period; But she was wrong&period; After arranging her merchandise&comma; Sarah looked up to see that the person ahead of her was an elderly woman who was not only paying for each of her items as a separate transaction&comma; but she was also using loose change for each purchase&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Very quickly&comma; Sarah realized she wasn&rsquo&semi;t going to be leaving the store as soon as she&rsquo&semi;d hoped&period; After a long day at work&comma; this wasn&rsquo&semi;t a welcomed realization for the Indiana mom&comma; whose toddler was having a meltdown in the cart&comma; just wanting to get home&period; Sarah admitted that part of her was frustrated with the woman and the inconvenience she was creating&period; Then Ishmael Gilbert&comma; the young cashier at the register&comma; caught Sarah&rsquo&semi;s attention&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As she watched his behavior towards the elderly customer&comma; Sarah&rsquo&semi;s annoyance stopped dead in its tracks&period; « Very sweetly&comma; Ishmael helped the woman and counted the change&comma; tenderly taking it from her shaking hands&comma; » Sarah wrote in a Facebook post about the encounter&period; « When she asked if she had enough to buy a reusable bag&comma; he told her she didn&rsquo&semi;t&comma; went two lines over to get one for her&comma; and then repackaged her items&period; Never once did this employee huff&comma; gruff&comma; or roll his eyes&period; He was nothing but patient and kind&period; »<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Instead of becoming frustrated with each of the elderly woman&rsquo&semi;s requests&comma; Ishmael politely responded&comma; « Yes&comma; ma&rsquo&semi;am&period; » As she watched&comma; Sarah realized that her young daughter&comma; Eloise&comma; was watching the interaction too&comma; and her child was getting something money simply couldn&rsquo&semi;t buy&period; « I realized I hadn&rsquo&semi;t been inconvenienced at all&comma; that my daughter was instead witnessing kindness and patience and being taught this lesson by a complete stranger&comma; » Sarah wrote&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When Ishmael finished with the elderly woman and began ringing up Sarah&rsquo&semi;s items&comma; he thanked her for her patience&period; But it was Sarah who was full of gratitude&period; She thanked Ishmael for teaching her and her children patience and kindness by his treatment of that elderly woman&period; But she knew she had to do more to truly express her appreciation&period; Although her trip to Target had already surpassed the amount of time she&rsquo&semi;d wanted to spend in the store&comma; Sarah had one more thing to do before she left&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>« When he was finished&comma; I pushed my cart through the store&comma; trying to find the manager&period; I wanted her to know of the employee&rsquo&semi;s kindness and patience and how much it meant to me&comma; » she wrote&period; Sarah dragged the manager down and told her what her employee had done&period; But the story was far from over&period; Sarah&rsquo&semi;s insistence on praising Ishmael&comma; both in the store and later on social media&comma; changed the young man&rsquo&semi;s life&period; Not only did he go viral&comma; but he was also offered a new job where his tenderness will be an asset&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>« We left Target with a cart full of consumable items&comma; but what&rsquo&semi;s more&comma; a heart full of gratitude for such an invaluable lesson&comma; » Sarah concluded&period; No longer frustrated about being held up during a rush to finish&comma; the world could use more people like him&comma; she said of Ishmael&period; And we couldn&rsquo&semi;t agree more&period; We often go about our day rushing around with limited time and patience&comma; only wanting to tackle our errands as rapidly as possible&period; We fail to remember that sometimes kindness and compassion require us to give up some of our valuable time&period; This is a good reminder to slow down and ensure we are showing others the grace we all need and deserve&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;