Mom Struggles To Buy A Slice Of Birthday Cake For Her Son, This Woman Gets Her Target And Gas Gift Cards
We all have our struggles, whether those would be health issues, psychological or financial problems. Some of us manage to get through the day on our own by some miracle, despite the hardships we face. But some play the game of life on higher difficulty settings. Luckily, there are still some people empathetic enough towards strangers to jump in and help if they see someone in need. That’s exactly the case with Bianca Garibay, who noticed a young mom, struggling to pay for a single slice of cake for her son’s birthday, and immediately knew she had to do something.
This woman saw a poor young mom at a supermarket, struggling to pay for a single slice of cake for her son’s birthday
Image credits: Bianca Garibay
Bianca Garibay was standing in a queue at a H-E-B supermarket in Texas when she noticed a young mom, struggling to pay for a single slice of cake. “She had a baby and a little boy with her, and she was buying a SLICE of a birthday cake with a pack of candles. The total came up as $5.57. She started looking around and pulled out 2 dollars, and then started counting out change. […] The mom said, ‘I just have to make sure I will still have $2 or so for gas.’ Her little boy replied, ‘It’s okay, mom. I don’t need a birthday cake. We just need gas so I can get to school.’ I could tell the mom felt completely defeated. She put back the candles. Everyone in line clearly heard and saw what was going on, but no one said anything.”
She then quickly grabbed a pack of candles, Target gift card and a gift card for gas and rushed out after the poor mom
Image credits: Bianca Garibay
Watching the scene made her think about her own mom, who struggled in the past while raising her and her brother, but never let it show, and shielded her kids from it instead. Feeling inspired for kindness by this memory, she grabbed the candles, a Target gift card, and another gift card for gas, and ran outside after the young mom, saying “Ma’am, you dropped something”. After the mom shook her head, saying she wishes it was hers but it sadly wasn’t, Bianca told her “Yes, it’s yours. It’s yours because I got it for you. I want you to take this Target gift card and get your son a birthday present. I want you to take this gift card and put gas in your car. Fill the whole tank. I want you to take these candles. And when your son is about to blow them out, I want you to make a wish, too.”
She did all this after remembering how her own mom struggled to raise her and her brother, but never let them know
Image credits: Bianca Garibay
Bianca said she has never seen anyone so grateful before in her life. “Everyone has the ‘not my problem, not my business’ mindset. Slowly, along the way, we have forgotten it takes a village to raise a child,” she added. After their heartfelt exchange, Bianca left the woman her phone number, asking to call her if she ever needs anything. Instead of a call for help, she receives the following text.
Bianca later received a text full of sincere gratitude
Image credits: Bianca Garibay
“Kindness to me is simply about putting others before yourself. Kindness is making the smallest gestures to make the biggest impact on someone’s life. Kindness is saying, ‘I’m here for you, even if you feel alone.’ Kindness is simply smiling at someone and letting them know you see them, even in this hectic world. It’s simply acknowledging your neighbor and letting them know you’re there.”
People of the Internet loved her story
There are the heartfelt stories and then the disheartening ones. I had a neighbor when I was in college that had a horrible marriage. Her husband was a full-time student, but wouldn't allow her to attend, demanding that she stay home to raise his son. She was not allowed to work and she wasn't given money unless she proved how she spent it. When her son's birthday came around, the husband chose to leave for 3 days to go hunting with his buddies leaving her with nothing for the child's birthday. I asked her to come over to my house for a few and she walked in to find out the neighbors had planned a birthday party for her son. She was worried that her husband would find out. I told her that it was my son's birthday too and we wanted to share it. Over the next few months, one neighbor (woman who also left an abusive relationship) worked with her and helped her leave her husband, no one knows were to. But last I heard, she was attending college.
This makes me feel good about you Carol, keeping my faith in humanity going, as an abuse victim from years ago I wish there were more like you in the world. So many people choose to not be involved, look away. Love that she got out And love that people kept her close it probably saved her life <3
I can understand though why more people don't help. The husband went ballistic when she disappeared with the child. He knew the neighbors had something to do with it and actually took to vandalizing the neighbors cars and harassing us. The college eventually kicked him out. We never heard anything about what happened to him.
Am I understanding this correctly? The woman who did this wrote this story out to share it with the world? Then she posted the thank-you tweet under the guise of saying "look how nice this woman was with her "thank you" tweet!"? That feels pretty ridiculously humble/not humble!
While I understand where you're coming from I will say that if even one person reads this & pays more attention when they see someone in need than it's a good thing. We are all so wrapped up in our own day that we don't always see what is right under our noses.
Perhaps she tweeted about it hoping to inspire others to do an act of kindness as well. She posted the thank you to show how a simple act of kindness can make a huge difference in a person's life. For you all to slam her for doing this just goes to show how cynical the world has become. You have taken a good deed and tried to ruin it.
Yup. At the very least, a bunch of people saw this and got the warm fuzzies and that's better than nothing. The world would be a great place if everyone was in a rush to publicly show the charity work they did. Some "keeping up with the Jones' " mentality would be great in that case!
I'm glad I'm not the only one that saw it that way. Why not do this and shut you're mouth about it afterwards.
So what if the giver patted herself on the back and placed the story on the internet? What counts is that this little boy had a birthday cake complete with presents and the mom had gas to get him to school. As the giver pointed out "everyone in line heard the exchange but nobody offered to help". Wrong, for whatever reason, self-aggrandizing or not, the giver heard and reacted and the poor family received what was needed. That is the most important aspect of this story and all that truly matters.
This comment has been deleted.
She did something very good for the child, but publish it on the internet? for what? How good and charitable am I? millions of people do significant things for others and do not publish it as if it were someone's life saved. I am not a bitter one, much less, but boasting about buying a cake is too much, it made the child happy, but this does not change anyone's life, I myself have not had birthday cakes because my mother did not even have for a bus ticket , and that's not why I was less happy.
This is one of those stories where I wonder if the deeds would even be recognized if the person wasn't so physically attractive. I'm grateful to see someone like her stepping forward to help others, either way.
I partially agree with your point, but then again, stories like this are a good contrast to the bad news we're bombarded with every day, therefore helping keeping the general morale up. Also, the "fame" from these are inspiring. And, sometimes, it feels like we the people have forgotten how to be kind, so here we have an example.
to inspire others to do good to other people. and to bring good vibes for other people who can't. why are you so salty about it?
I think that it's just to raise awareness, anyone can be mean and salty and will find it in everything, and then their are some that say even a little kids gesture, please help out where you can, give back notice when others are hurting and struggling,. The more we become aware of these issues around us every day. Some are negative and will be that way no matter what, others are just happy, not because of material things, and want to spread love instead of putting everything and everyone down
There are the heartfelt stories and then the disheartening ones. I had a neighbor when I was in college that had a horrible marriage. Her husband was a full-time student, but wouldn't allow her to attend, demanding that she stay home to raise his son. She was not allowed to work and she wasn't given money unless she proved how she spent it. When her son's birthday came around, the husband chose to leave for 3 days to go hunting with his buddies leaving her with nothing for the child's birthday. I asked her to come over to my house for a few and she walked in to find out the neighbors had planned a birthday party for her son. She was worried that her husband would find out. I told her that it was my son's birthday too and we wanted to share it. Over the next few months, one neighbor (woman who also left an abusive relationship) worked with her and helped her leave her husband, no one knows were to. But last I heard, she was attending college.
This makes me feel good about you Carol, keeping my faith in humanity going, as an abuse victim from years ago I wish there were more like you in the world. So many people choose to not be involved, look away. Love that she got out And love that people kept her close it probably saved her life <3
I can understand though why more people don't help. The husband went ballistic when she disappeared with the child. He knew the neighbors had something to do with it and actually took to vandalizing the neighbors cars and harassing us. The college eventually kicked him out. We never heard anything about what happened to him.
Am I understanding this correctly? The woman who did this wrote this story out to share it with the world? Then she posted the thank-you tweet under the guise of saying "look how nice this woman was with her "thank you" tweet!"? That feels pretty ridiculously humble/not humble!
While I understand where you're coming from I will say that if even one person reads this & pays more attention when they see someone in need than it's a good thing. We are all so wrapped up in our own day that we don't always see what is right under our noses.
Perhaps she tweeted about it hoping to inspire others to do an act of kindness as well. She posted the thank you to show how a simple act of kindness can make a huge difference in a person's life. For you all to slam her for doing this just goes to show how cynical the world has become. You have taken a good deed and tried to ruin it.
Yup. At the very least, a bunch of people saw this and got the warm fuzzies and that's better than nothing. The world would be a great place if everyone was in a rush to publicly show the charity work they did. Some "keeping up with the Jones' " mentality would be great in that case!
I'm glad I'm not the only one that saw it that way. Why not do this and shut you're mouth about it afterwards.
So what if the giver patted herself on the back and placed the story on the internet? What counts is that this little boy had a birthday cake complete with presents and the mom had gas to get him to school. As the giver pointed out "everyone in line heard the exchange but nobody offered to help". Wrong, for whatever reason, self-aggrandizing or not, the giver heard and reacted and the poor family received what was needed. That is the most important aspect of this story and all that truly matters.
This comment has been deleted.
She did something very good for the child, but publish it on the internet? for what? How good and charitable am I? millions of people do significant things for others and do not publish it as if it were someone's life saved. I am not a bitter one, much less, but boasting about buying a cake is too much, it made the child happy, but this does not change anyone's life, I myself have not had birthday cakes because my mother did not even have for a bus ticket , and that's not why I was less happy.
This is one of those stories where I wonder if the deeds would even be recognized if the person wasn't so physically attractive. I'm grateful to see someone like her stepping forward to help others, either way.
I partially agree with your point, but then again, stories like this are a good contrast to the bad news we're bombarded with every day, therefore helping keeping the general morale up. Also, the "fame" from these are inspiring. And, sometimes, it feels like we the people have forgotten how to be kind, so here we have an example.
to inspire others to do good to other people. and to bring good vibes for other people who can't. why are you so salty about it?
I think that it's just to raise awareness, anyone can be mean and salty and will find it in everything, and then their are some that say even a little kids gesture, please help out where you can, give back notice when others are hurting and struggling,. The more we become aware of these issues around us every day. Some are negative and will be that way no matter what, others are just happy, not because of material things, and want to spread love instead of putting everything and everyone down