This actually happened to me a while ago, but it's something I think about often, and it's been especially on my mind tonight, so I really wanted to share it. It starts out a little rocky, but I promise, it has a happy ending.

When I was working alone at a small laundromat, an elderly man came in and tried to request a wash rag from me (to clean his hands before handling his clothes). The interaction was very stressful, as he was grumpy and unclear about what he needed and my attempts to understand him better were met with obvious frustration from him. Long story short, he said something that was extremely unkind to me, and I wound up hiding - and crying - in the office.

While I was back there, I could still see out to the main laundry area and the parking lot. The man went out and sat in his truck for a while, and I saw that he had a dog with him. He pet the dog and seemed to be talking to it. Then, he came back in, walked over to the door to the office, and knocked on it.

I tried to act like I hadn't been crying, but I'm a hard crier, so it was probably pretty obvious. He looked at me and said, "Miss, I am very sorry. I'm not at my best today, and you didn't deserve any of that. I'm ashamed of myself."

I told him it was okay, but his apology made me even more emotional, so I started crying again, and then apologized to him for crying, and he said, "Don't you apologize because some guy was a jerk to you. You have every right to be upset." Then, he asked if he could give me a hug. I stepped out of the office and we stood there, hugging, and he started crying, as well.

We sat down together and talked until his laundry was done. He told me he'd lost his wife just a few weeks earlier, and he wasn't handling it very well. I held his hand and we cried together again before he got his clothes together and left.

I think about him a lot. That apology and the conversation that followed meant the world to me, and has helped in ways I couldn't even have predicted since. It restored my faith in people. Wherever he is now, I hope he knows that.

Stock photo used for illustrative purposes; not of actual people in the story