“I help out anybody, I don’t care.”
When Chip Matthews woke up on November 5th, it was anything but an ordinary, average, ho-hum day. As soon as he opened his eyes that morning, he realized he was now a whole whoppin’ 6-years-old!
The outside of his house was decorated with lots of fun balloons, the inside had colorful banners announcing his birthday, and just down the street was a mail lady who held the key to all his happiness – a pile of boxes with his name on it.
But wait, there’s more! When mail carrier Tawanna Purter noticed all the packages with Chip’s name on it, she whipped out a special surprise for her favorite little guy on her route.
‘Cause that’s how this amazing, kindhearted woman rolls!
Some boys like chasing garbage trucks. Others like chasing fire trucks. But for 6-year-old Chip, his jam is mail trucks! In particular, he has a crush on Tawanna Purter’s mail USPS mail truck.
And that’s the truck that brings him all the Amazon goodies.
“So, when he came running out the door, I said: ‘You must be Chip!’ And he was like, yes. I said, ‘Today’s your birthday?’ And he started smiling,” Tawanna said.
“So, I said, ’Let me see if I can find you something for your birthday.”
That’s when she reached down into her pocket and surprised the lucky little guy with the one gift that everyone hopes to get on their birthday – money!
Out came a dollar bill out four quarters, which according to mom Bonnie, is the most money Chip has ever had in his life.
It may seem like a one-off, something that the mail carrier did in the heat of the moment, but this is actually the sort of thing she does on a regular basis.
“I help out anybody, I don’t care.”
She loves to surprise people with gas or grocery money, and her pay-it-forward mentality was born from a time when she herself was struggling to make ends meet and had very little.
The 42-year-old letter carrier went on to say that:
“Even though … no one knows how they’re going to make it from here to the next day, there are still people that … take their time and still want to show kindness.”
Mom said that Chip was “ecstatic” about the unexpected gift! And who can blame him?
“He came running back in the house just waving his money, so excited that he got some birthday money from somewhere extra special and unexpected.”
Bonnie also noted that the kind gesture gave her hope after she lost her job as a school counselor. Just like the rest of the country, this Opelika, Alabama family has spent long months in isolation.
“Our family, like many families, has endured a lot … has had some pretty significant challenges. And so, gestures like that, I think those are the things, those are the memories that we’re hoping to take away from these nine months.”
Even though the money was only a couple of bucks, in Bonnie’s eyes the gift’s value was worth a whole lot more.
The two families have kept in touch since that day. Tawanna has been struggling to find someone to take care of her 8-year-old son Joshua while she’s on the job, so Bonnie has opened up her home to the boy. He attends virtual classes while Tawanna delivers the mail.
“It was an awesome moment,” Bonnie said. “There was a reason we were brought together.”
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