“On Sunday night I was at the Deacon Blue concert in Plymouth (which was FAN-TAST-IC!) I was alone, as I often go to concerts on my own. So, after the show I headed back, amongst the crowds, to the multi-storey car park. It was one of those car parks where you take a ticket on entry and pay before leaving.
Because we’d all just come out of the concert, there was a massive, long queue. It snaked all the way up the concrete steps from the ground floor to level 2, where the the pay machines were. It took a good 15-20 minutes to finally get to the front. I popped my ticket into the machine, looked for the scanner, to scan my phone for payment, then looked again, then looked at the screen and all around the machine and looked again, but I couldn’t see a scanner or tap point anywhere 😱.
Then the panic set in as I realised there wasn’t any way of paying by phone. Someone in the queue behind called out, ‘you can only pay by card or coins’. On no!! Apart from the uncomfortable feeling of embarrassment, my panic intensified as I realised I didn’t have my bank card and I didn’t even know if I had enough cash with me. I’d have to go to my car and dig around every nook and cranny to try to muster enough coins to pay and then go back to the end of the queue again!
It was then that a lovely, kind gentleman, behind me, stepped forward with his card. ‘I’ll cover it’, he said, ‘don’t worry’. Oh my goodness, wow! I couldn’t thank him enough, I asked him what floor he was parked on so I could get the cash from my car to reimburse him (hoping I could find enough!) but he wouldn’t let me and simply asked that I ‘pay it forward’ – and that, kind sir, I promise you I will do. Thank you so much to that lovely, kind gentleman for stepping in to save me.”
And thank you to Erika for sharing this wonderful story of kindness with us.