It’s not every day that someone goes way out of their way to help a total stranger.
Dee Harkrider recently swung by the Walmart in Forest City, Arkansas to grab three jugs of washer fluid. After she loaded them into her car, she absent-mindedly left her wallet in the shopping cart, then drove away. Dee, a grandmother of seven who lives on disibility, didn’t even realize she’d left the wallet behind.
Dee was halfway to a friend’s house in Palestine when her cell phone rang. It was her friend, Elaine Keown, asking if she knew a young man named Delivontae Johnson.
“I was like: ‘No I’ve never heard that name,'” Dee recalled. “‘I have no idea who that is'”
It turns out, 19-year-old Delivontae visited Walmart right after Dee and spotted her wallet in the shopping cart. He opened the wallet and found Dee’s license, but with no phone number to contact her, he turned to Facebook. Once he matched her profile picture with the one on her driver’s license, he sent her a message.
Dee didn’t reply, so Delivontae reached out to her friend Elaine, who’d recently interacted with Dee on the platform. It certainly took some detective work to track down the wallet’s owner, but Delivontae wasn’t finished going above and beyond just yet!
Dee called Delivontae and they arranged to meet at a restaurant in Palestine, about a 20-minute drive for the teen. At the restaurant, Delivontae handed over the wallet and Dee pulled a $20 from it to give him as a reward.
“I just felt like he was an angel sent from God,” said the grateful grandmother.
Delivontae says it felt “great” to help someone in need, and urged others to perform random acts of kindness when presented with the chance to brighten someone’s day. He believes that what he did to help Dee was just the right thing to do.
“You’ve just got to be honest,” said Delivontae. “(There’s) no telling what the outcome might be. If you do good things, good things will follow.”
The two have now become friends, visiting each other’s churches and meeting family members. Dee even had lunch with Delivontae’s mom, Rachel Johnson, and found the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
These two families are now united by kindness and mutual respect, and that’s a beautiful thing! Delivontae is correct, it does feel good to help others.
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