Everyone who has raised a child knows that it’s far from an easy job, especially when you’re out and about and surrounded by the public. Few situations are as frustrating as your child having a tantrum in the middle of a shopping center, restaurant or while riding public transportation.
Indeed, as a parent, one has to be constantly alert and present. For we all know that few really tolerate a bratty child.
So when single mother Sammie Welch prepared herself for a six-hour train ride with her 3-year-old son Rylan, she did everything in her power to avoid any drama or frustration during the ride. What she didn’t know, however, was that a stranger was watching them from across the room…
The last thing Sammie wanted was for Rylan to have a tantrum among a bunch of train passengers just desperate to get home.
She knew at the same time that the best way to succeed at this was to keep the 3-year-old occupied.
So they counted things out of the window, painted, read books, ate sandwiches, listened to music, and played store. And certainly, even though the boy was tired and restless, he behaved exemplarily, in no way irritating fellow passengers.
Sammie’s tactics had worked… and eventually the 3-year-old fell asleep in her lap.
That’s when a perfect stranger stood up. He had been sitting opposite them, and neither the mother nor the boy had noticed him — but he had noticed them.
Before he left the train, the man tapped Sammie on her shoulder, handed her a little piece of paper, and disappeared.
Sammie could not believe her eyes. She found a 5 pound note (about USD $7) inside a note that read:
“Have a drink on me. You are a credit to your generation, polite and teaching the little boy good manners”.
But there was more written on the back… and the words went straight to Sammie’s heart.
“P.S. I have a daughter your age. Someone did the same thing for her once. Hope when she has children, she is as good a mother as you. ”
It was the nicest compliment anyone could have given the struggling single mom. She did everything she could to raise Rylan — and that a perfect stranger recognized it just made her day!
She was deeply touched and close to tears. Unfortunately, the mysterious man had disappeared before Sammie even had the chance to thank him.
So she took to Facebook as well as a local newspaper to describe what had happened.
And eventually the man came forth after 6 days of searching. And Sammie at last reunited with the 50-year-old, Ken Saunders!
“I worry I’m not doing a good job with Rylan all the time — all the time. I worry, am I too hard on him? Am I too soft on him? I try so hard to get it right. So for someone to say I’m going a good job means everything,” Sammie told Daily Mail.
“‘I don’t think he realised the impact of what he did. How it made me feel. I just wanted to thank him. That was all,” she explains.
For Ken, however, it was a simple act of humanity.
‘I wasn’t going to tell anyone — why would I? It’s no big deal. Lots of people do things like this all the time,” he tells Daily Mail.
