01/19/2026
Wednesday night I almost lost everything that mattered to me.
I had stopped at the Piggly Wiggly on 78 after work, grabbed a few things, pushed my buggy back into the cart port, and drove home without a second thought. Around nine thirty that night my heart dropped. My phone was gone. Then I realized my wristlet was gone too. The one with all my money inside.
That morning my daughter Shelisa had given me two hundred dollars in cash so I could get our tags. I also had more than seventy of my own, including ten dollars in quarters. My phone. My cards. My whole life for the week. All missing.
I sat there shaking, replaying every step in my mind. The only place I had been was that grocery store.
I called the store with a knot in my throat, already preparing myself for the worst. The manager answered and said something I still cannot believe.
Yes ma’am, we have your phone and your wristlet right here.
When I asked about the money, my breath stopped.
It was all there. Every single dollar. Every coin.
Then I asked the question that mattered most. Who turned it in.
The manager said his name was Anthony.
A teenage boy who works there after school.
I went back the next day just to look him in the eye and say thank you. I gave him one hundred dollars, not because I had to, but because my heart told me to. Then I called his mother, Joyce, and told her what kind of son she is raising.
She cried.
And so did I.
We hear so many stories about what is wrong with this world. We hear about theft and lies and selfishness. But this young man stood in the middle of all that and chose to do the right thing.
At an age when so many people say kids have lost their values, Anthony proved something different.
Honesty is still alive.
And goodness still walks among us.
Tonight I am grateful. Grateful for a boy who could have walked away with my money and never been caught, but chose to walk up to a counter instead.
This story deserves to be told.
