Years ago I was homeless on the streets in the Pacific Northwest. I was married at the time, young and in love.

Daily life was a struggle and we were both artist longing to do more art in life. Living with the day to day struggle homelessness brings we did not have the supplies we needed to create the art we loved.

We were given a gift card for $150 to a local art store. We were so giddy, we got inside the store on a windy day in downtown Portland. As we were gathering our items and putting them at the register an older gentlemen walked in with a cane. He closed the door behind him and approached the counter. Right then another person came in and the wind blew a ton of postcards onto the ground. My husband Galen rushed over to pick them up.

The older gentleman assumed he had somehow dropped these and thanked Galen for his kindness. He said it was no problem and we continued with our purchase. The store clerk let us know the total which was just under our gift card amount.

This older man with a cane asked what the total of our purchase was and proceeded to pull out his credit card and offer it as payment. The clerk informed him we had a gift card and he said let them save it for next time.

He purchased our items and walked away with a smile.

That meant the world to us, on this cold windy day in the Pacific Northwest the sun shined a little brighter on our damp souls.

I'll never forget his kindness and strive to do good deeds daily because of moments like these.