Jack, Rachel’s husband, died in a terrible truck accident, which turned her life upside down. Rachel fought to make ends meet when she had to take care of their five sets of twins by herself. The stress of money was starting to get to her, no matter how hard she tried. When Rachel went grocery shopping one day, she got to the cashier and couldn’t afford the things she needed.
Max, her four-year-old son, started to cry and beg for candy while she tried to explain what was going on. Other buyers were looking at what was going on, and Lincy, the cashier, got antsy. She told Rachel, “You’re $10 short,” and got ready to take things out of her shopping cart. Rachel felt terrible.
It looked like things couldn’t get any worse until an older woman with a friendly face showed up out of nowhere. She told Rachel her name was Mrs. Simpson and offered to pay her food bill. Rachel wasn’t sure what to do at first, but Mrs. Simpson’s smile made her feel better.
As they left the shop, Rachel thanked Mrs. Simpson very much and asked her to come over for tea and cookies. The next day, Mrs. Simpson showed up at Rachel’s door, and the two of them had a cup of tea and talked. Rachel told Mrs Simpson about how hard it was for her to be a single mum, and she listened carefully.
She was looking for someone to help her run her clothes shop, it turned out. She hired Rachel right away and said she would help watch the kids while Rachel worked. Rachel was so happy that she took the offer right away.
Rachel did great in her new job with Mrs. Simpson’s help. It took her a lot of hard work to learn new things and even start her own clothes line as a side business. Rachel’s self-esteem grew over the months, and she started to put her life back together. She always remembered how nice Mrs. Simpson was to her and tried to be kind to others whenever she could.
Rachel and Mrs. Simpson’s first meeting by chance changed the course of their lives. It showed that being kind and generous could make things better even when things were the worst.