Quarter Master

 As we all become more pandemic-dreary, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel while also being a little afraid or unsure of that light, I bring to you a nice, warm and fuzzy story I found on Facebook today.

I belong to a FB group called Little Facebook Friends of Mike’s Mom, or something to that effect, which is essentially a fan club for Peggy Rowe, mother of Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame.

This morning, a member posted how she had left her home country to spend a brief period of time working at a Six Flags amusement park here in the U. S.

It was around 2007 or so, and the woman soon discovered that all our quarters were different (at the time, the mint was coming down the homestretch of the state quarters collection). She decided that in her time here, she would do her best to collect them all. 

Unfortunately, she was unable to collect all of the coins before she returned home. On her flight home, she struck up a conversation with a couple and she shared her disappointment that she was unable to finish her collection. 

The couple asked for her mailing address and said they would collect her missing coins and send them to her.

Life did its thing, as its wont to do, and she forgot about the quarters.

But two years after that chance airplane meeting, the woman received a package in the mail. Inside was an adorable wooden treasure chest that contained the missing coins. The helpful coin hunters went above and beyond, in my opinion, by not only finding missing state quarters, but doing their best to find both Denver and Philadelphia mint marks.

While our country has been through it over the past several years, with hatred and judgement seeming to be at all-time highs, I prefer to think that this couple’s benevolent effort on behalf of a foreign stranger more represents who we are. That when we have the chance to do something quietly just for the sake of a kind gesture — no more, no less — we jump on it. No headlines, no reward, no hidden motive; just the chance to make a small difference in someone else’s life.

In a time when we have perhaps become even more detested as privileged Americans when viewed through global eyes, stories like this make me proud and thankful that truly benevolent folks still exist.