A man’s kind gesture towards an old widow has gone viral on social media.
Jamario Howard was eating out with his friends, JaMychol Baker and Tae Knight, at the local restaurant Brads in Oxford, Alabama, on April 18, according to Fox26.
While the three friends were waiting for their food, Howard noticed an elderly woman who was eating alone. According to his Facebook post, he wrote, “[m]y exact thoughts was ‘dang I’d hate to have to eat alone.'”
So tonight JaMychol Baker Tae Knight and myself went out to eat at this place called Brads in Oxford, and after us…
Posted by Jamario Howard on Thursday, April 18, 2019
He thought about what he should do for a minute and decided to make his way over to the woman, whom Fox26 identified as Eleanor, asking her if he could sit with her. After the woman said yes, she and Howard engaged in conversation. It was during this conversation that Howard found out that her husband passed away, and she would have celebrated their 60th anniversary on April 19—the very next day.
Howard immediately gave her his condolences and invited her to join him at his table with his friends, something that she was excited to do, according to the Facebook post.
Howard shared that this woman had changed his outlook on life, and how he viewed other people who he came across. For him, he said, was to be kind to people.
“The point in this is always be kind and be nice to people,” Howard wrote. “You never know what they are going through.”
He then added that people always have a story to tell, and that it’s not right for someone to judge people right from the beginning. He ended the Facebook post by telling his friends to go visit their own elderly relatives.
“Go see your mom and your grandparents,” he wrote. “They miss you!!”
The post received over 10,000 comments, over 33,000 shares, and more than 120,000 interactions.
Many people responded to his post by praising his actions, saying how considerate he was to pay attention to an older woman who was sitting in the restaurant all by herself.
“Proof that there are still young people who were raised right and respectful,” one user wrote. “Your parents should be proud.”
Another person commented with, “wonderful human beings. Compassionate, loving and kind. Everything will and does come back to you. God bless you all. Keep sharing your light with the world.”
“For good, or for bad, we are a community,” another user commented,” a community invested in each other’s interests. You gentlemen obviously know that. Thank you for making my day too.”
Similar Acts of Kindness
When a young man named Eric Haralson was eating at a local McDonald’s one day, he witnessed a group of teens blow off an elderly woman’s attempts at conversation.
While the teens didn’t mock or harass the woman, her polite questions to start up a conversation were shut down fairly quickly. Instead of engaging with her, the group made it clear that they weren’t there to entertain someone who just seemed a little lonely.
“One of the kids had a man bun and she was very intrigued by it and asked what made him come up with that hairstyle,” Haralson later told Good Morning America. “They didn’t take to her that much … she said, ‘What? did I scare them off?’ I said, ‘I guess you did.’”
After witnessing that, Haralson knew he could do better. So when she asked if she could sit with him, he warmly welcomed her to share his table—and another customer couldn’t help but take a surreptitious photo when they saw how sweet the interaction was.
“Shout out to this guy!” the fellow diner, a local teacher named Amanda Craft, wrote in a caption of the photo on social media.
“This elderly lady came up to him and asked if she could sit with him. Without hesitation, this guy said, ‘of course.’ My friends and I watched him introduce himself and shake her hand. They talked and laughed together like they were friends.”
Many users had commented about how wonderful it was to see something like this happening, and that the world needed more of this sweet exchange. Others called it a random act of kindness, and that it should be more frequent. A few were quick to share their own experiences with similar situations. The post was flooded with feel-good comments as well as praise for the man who was more than happy to welcome a conversation with an elderly woman who needed someone to talk to.
The woman, who introduced herself to Haralson as Jan, didn’t give any indication that she had a significant other or children.
She seemed delighted to hear about his own girlfriend and kids, though, he told Good Morning America. Her obvious interest in his life and the people that made him happy showed that maybe all she needed was someone to talk to.
The Epoch Times Newsroom contributed to this article.
