A Blessing In Disguise

Sometimes, good deeds are not immediately rewarded; God has reserved a proper time to compensate them. 

I was then in my sophomore year in high school when I tried to sell plastic bags at the Naga City Supermarket (Now Naga City People's Mall) primarily to augment my meager daily school allowance. My first attempt was really unsuccessful, but it was challenging and memorable.

To anticipate and take the chance of the large throng of market-goers, I woke up early. It was my first time to sell something and I was terribly nervous. I had to dispose the two dozens of medium sized plastic bags which I had to sell each at P1.00 inclusive of the 50 cents profit.

Timid and afraid to approach a customer, I was too awkward then and became speechless whenever there was already a customer in front of me. Unfortunately, I was not able to sell one.

While walking home regretful, I saw a woman whose pieces of grocery were scattered on the road. She was too weak to pick up her items for she was suffering from a certain ailment which I did not know then. She was grasping for breath; No one who passed by tried to help her.

Without any hesitation, I helped and gave her a piece of plastic bag which she requested for the purpose I did not bother knowing at all. Instead, I immediately picked up her dispersed commodities which some of them were already ran over by unmindful motorists. I still recovered pieces of fish, pork and chicken meat and several bundles of different kinds of leafy vegetables among others. 

Feeling grateful for what I did, she thanked me a lot and offered to pay me for my service. I refused getting paid for it was voluntary on my part to help her in such pitiful situation. But deep inside, I wanted to. 
Several years passed and I almost forgot my silly adventure as well as the incident.

One day, I was badly in need of money to settle my financial obligations - my car loan was almost 3 months overdue and my car might get repossessed by the bank, my credit card companies were already threatening to close my accounts, my telephone and cellphone bills were ballooning and also under threat of disconnection. My pocket was literally dry - not a single penny in it and worst, I had no one to borrow money from.

I was driving within the outskirt of the city to look for the client who inquired with me about a certain property in one of the high end subdivisions in Naga City. I pulled over to eat lunch in a carinderia nearby a school. Since I entered the place, an old woman had been staring at me. Then from behind a lady approached me and said that the woman, her grandmother, wanted to talk to me. Without any much ado, I yielded to her request. 

"You know, You look like the boy many years ago who once helped me survive an impending death." Said the woman. " I am sure you are for I can feel it.

I could not believe what she said but I knew I had once helped someone many years ago. I just could not recognize her for she had grown too old. I became inquisitive then.

According to her, it was sometime July several years back when a severe asthma attacked her that almost caused her life if not of a piece of plastic bag which she used as an improvised gadget to relieve her from breathing difficulty. The boy who helped her and refused to get paid of his service was simply an angel in disguise.

The old woman was narrating the incident vividly and in complete details which were exactly how the incident happened. On that very day, I was reunited with the person I unknowingly helped in my lifetime. 

I was indeed so lucky that day for she is the mother of the client I was looking for in that area. With her approval, her daughter did not hesitate to get the best property I offered to them. And my luck did not stop there for her other children abroad also bought properties in the same subdivision through me. 

I thanked her a lot for being also a blessing in that time of my great need. I told her that she had just solved my great financial burden that time.
 "I am just giving you the fruit of your kindness", she replied. " You were once a blessing to me, now I am to you."

Indeed, our kindness and generosity to other people are rewarded sometime in our life whether we like or expect it or not. It may not come instantly in many different possible ways, but it will do - oftentimes during the moment we need it most.