What with an overbooked clinic at Phoenix Homeopathy, as well as masses of birthday, anniversary and seasonal celebrations, time to blog will be pretty impossible to find right now, so I won’t be here again until 2008. Instead of a homeopathic subject, I have a tale to tell you, and I kid you not, it’s a true story.

Last week, a very elderly friend of my mum’s (let’s call her Mabel) was just about to pay for her big load of supermarket grocery shopping, when she realised that, in a ‘senior moment’, she’d left her debit card at home.

Distressed, she explained to the cashier that she only had a few pounds in her purse, and apologised that she’d have to go home by taxi to get her card, and then come back to the store to start her shopping again.

However, as Mabel was a regular at this particular store, the manager told her that, to save her having to go round the aisles all over again, her shopping would be put in cold store, for her to pay for and collect when she got back.

Gratefully, Mabel handed her trolley of unpaid goods over to an assistant, and went to call a cab from the supermarket phone. She sat down to rest, keeping an eye out for her cab driver.

Some minutes later, Mabel’s cab drew up, so she struggled to her feet and headed towards the car park. To her surprise, though, by the time she reached the cab, a supermarket employee was helping the cabbie to load all her shopping into the boot. “No, no, wait!” Mabel exclaimed, “I haven’t paid for that stuff yet!”

“No need to worry, madam,” said the shop assistant calmly, “a man who was behind you in the queue has paid for all your shopping for you.” Astounded, Mabel looked about for him, but the man was long gone. Neither Mabel nor the supermarket staff have any idea who he was.

The stranger’s anonymous and spontaneous act of kindness touched Mabel to her core, and she’s had a spring in her step ever since. She told my mum, who said the story brought a tear of gladness to her eye. My mum told me, and the tale made me feel all warm inside, and happy that the kindness of strangers still exists, as well as determined to do more acts of kindness and generosity every day (to those patients who’ve not been charged for one or two little items recently – now you know why – I was prompted by the kind man who was behind Mabel in the queue that day).

So now I’m passing Mabel’s story on to you, and I hope it inspires you, like it did me. I wish you a very merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy 2008.