To her, it was nothing more than a small gesture of generosity, but Carol Flynn's choice to help a young mother in need this week has ended up touching the hearts of thousands around the globe.
Flynn, 73, was shopping in a Walmart store in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sunday when she noticed that a customer at a checkout counter seemed to be having some difficulty.
Katie Kanefke, a young stay-at-home mom, had planned to buy four boxes of diapers for her 4-month-old son, Marcus. But when she found out the store would match a competitor's price for only one box, she set the other three boxes aside.
According to Jason Yoshino, who said he was standing behind Kanefke at the time, Flynn immediately swooped in and offered to pay for all four boxes.
"My wife and I were speechless at this warm hearted and kind act of generosity," Yoshino, who recorded the exchange on his phone, wrote in a Facebook post that has been shared more than 19,000 times. "There are some amazing people in this world."
On her part, Kanefke said she was totally taken aback -- and moved -- by Flynn's act of kindness.
"I couldn't believe it. I was shocked," the young mom told the Argus Leader. "I kept saying thank you and God bless you...Then I walked out in the parking lot and started crying. It just hit me. It was an awesome statement of what God's love does."
Flynn -- who didn't even know what "viral" meant before her act of kindness thrust her into the media spotlight -- said she had never wanted any recognition for helping Kanefke. She only wished the young woman might one day pay the kindness forward.
"I said [to Kanefke]... someday, you’ll do this. And I said paying it forward is kind of a neat thing to do, and I’m sure sometime you’ll pay it forward to somebody else,” Flynn told KSFY-TV.
Related
Before You Go
