It had been a long day and she was finally heading home when she realized she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and if she went straight home, she wouldn’t eat again until tomorrow, so she pulled into the first place she passed on the way, thinking she would just buy a little something to ease her hunger pangs.

She’d learned a lot about hunger in the last few years. She’d learned that water really can fill an empty stomach enough to allow sleep, and that ramen noodles go a long way when you’re down to your last dollar. But eventually a person has to eat and tonight she was hungry.

She was between paydays and as she counted out the remaining change in her purse she slowly realized she didn’t have enough to get anything on the menu. Why didn’t she use a little more precious gas to get herself to a place with a 99-cent menu??

“May I help you?” came the bright voice across the counter. She looked up at the girl and admitted with embarrassment she only had three dollars and fifty-eight cents. Could she get anything with that?

The girl hesitated, glancing over the keys of her cash register, then excused herself and walked to the back. While she was gone, the woman counted out her change again, willing another quarter or two to appear, but the number was still the same: $ 3.58.

When she looked up again, the manager was standing before her with a smile on her face. “What would you like to eat this evening?” she asked. The woman started to explain that she had limited funds but was cut off by the manager, who again smiled, looked into her eyes and asked again, “What would you LIKE to have?”

The woman glanced at the menu for the lowest-priced item and said in a shaky voice, “Fish, please.” The manager smiled broadly and asked, “Would you like some shrimp with that?” The woman shook her head but the manager threw in several hot, fresh shrimp before closing the box and handing it across the counter to the woman, who by now was quietly crying.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and the manager smiled across the counter. The look in her eyes said she’d been there too once. Those moments passed in a blur as she watched the manager pay for her meal, pressing her last few dollars back into her hand.

When she slipped into the driver’s seat, the woman began to cry in earnest, not because she was hungry, but because she had just experienced the touch of human kindness, and the sweetness of it was almost unbearable.

As she headed home with a warm meal on the seat beside her she realized what that manager had really given her. It wasn’t just a meal, it wasn’t just the incredibly kind gesture from a stranger; it was hope.

And with hope, all things are possible.