A grandmother's story

Editor's note: While Hernando Today normally doesn't publish letters to the editor on the front page, we felt this letter was a good reminder of the effect that world events have on our families and our community.

My grandson is stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, and was home for a two-week leave. I was anxious to see him so we set up a time to meet for lunch on Friday at Sonny's. We set a lunch time, as I knew he was enjoying being with his friends in the evenings. (He didn't need a date with his Grammy on a Friday night!)

It was so good to see him, and he looks great. We all placed our order with the waitress, and I began asking Jeremy all about Army life. He works in radar and really likes his job. He works 12-hour shifts, but sometimes he says it turns into 16 hours. He told us about the small living quarters that he shares with another soldier. He commented on the food, saying that they feed them well, when they have the time to eat.

It was just a great time, getting to find out about what he is doing on the other side of the world. He had e-mailed me from the airport in Kuwait when he was waiting for his flight home; and now here he was, sitting across from us at Sonny's.

We sat there quite some time, just enjoying the time together, when we decided perhaps we had kept the booth long enough. My husband asked the waitress for the check. She told us that the gentleman in the booth next to us had paid our bill. She said that he didn't want us to know until he had left.

You know what? That brought tears to my eyes.

He obviously had heard Jeremy telling us about his life in the Army. To this man, whoever you are, I just want to say "thank you" from the bottom of my heart. Not only was that a really nice thing to do, but to do it in the manner in which it was done. To pick up our tab, without our knowing, was special.

There are good people in this world, doing good things and acknowledging that our men and women in uniform are defending our country, so that we can live in peace.

This person has a good heart, and it's probably not the first time he has done this. I know that God was smiling down on him.

When Jeremy went home and told his Mom about this, she cried, too. I just wanted to share this heartwarming story with you.

God Bless!

Oh, and Jeremy just turned 20 this week.

Jo Anne Harding-Gangel

Weeki Wachee