A Black Kid Grabbed An Old Man By the Arm, What He Did Dropped Their Jaws…

Sometimes it takes just a random act of kindness to restore faith in our common humanity.

An 83-year-old man wanted to walk down to the lower level of the Holyoke Mall in Massachusetts, but he was too scared and even terrified to use the escalator.

However, when the elderly man was approached by a young man who generously grasped his arm and assisted him in reaching the lower level of the mall, his anxiety about riding an escalator instantly disappeared. The good deed was captured by Paula Picard who just happened to be in the right place.

In a Facebook post, Picard posted the incredibly sweet picture of the young man helping the elderly stranger.

Paula Picard wrote, “The older man was paused at the top of an escalator and a few people started gathering waiting to get on. It was clear he was feeling unsure and this young man offered the simplest kindness: an out-reached arm and a ‘can I help you on, sir?’”

As Johnson had nothing but compassion to offer, the elderly man embarrassingly explained to Johnson that he had tried to use an escalator before saying, “I’m 83 years old. I shouldn’t be afraid, but I got scared,” as Picard told MassLive.

She continued,He quietly started to explain to the young man that he had gotten stuck on an escalator once and was a little scared. The young man gently offered an assurance, they looked at each other eye to eye for just a moment and the older man accepted his arm. Everyone else remained patient. So, so sweet to witness!”

Alonzo Johnson was just shopping around in the mall and was making his way toward the exit when he saw the man struggling to get on the escalator.

“He seemed really terrified. Something made me stop and just ask if he wanted to come down with me,” Alonzo said.I told him — and he did, he looked very nice — I said, ‘You look nice.’”

Alonzo Johnson, 23, didn’t realize people were looking when he approached the elderly gentleman.

Afterward, the old man accepted his offer and they were standing arm in arm. Alonzo made sure that the man felt safe on the ride down.

He was telling me how he is 83 and I told him he looked nice. It was a great moment. I walked away and didn’t think anything of it until everyone was tagging me on Facebook,” the kind young man recalls.

Paula Picard
Alonzo Johnson offered to escort the 83-year-old man, who was scared to get on the escalator by himself.

“Such a simple act can really make a change,” Johnson said, claiming that he is humbled by the positive feedback his act of kindness has received on social media.

I definitely believe in God. My Mom has me going to church, but my Mom is the reason for all of this. My Mom always tells us to be nice and do the right thing, you never know who’s watching. It’s really the way I was brought up and how I was raised,” Johnson said acknowledging his mother with fostering in him traits of goodness and service from an early age.

In hoping that the story will remind everyone that we are more than what divides us, as she concurred that the media would have us focus on our differences in conclusion, Picard wrote:

“In about an hour, the evening news will air and we’ll be reminded of division, race wars, political mud-slinging, shootings and other heartaches. But today, violence, race, age, politics and other social lines were blurred and one person simply helped another.”

And when asked what Alonzo would see if he saw the man again, he humbly responds that he’d like to give him a hug.

“Don’t be afraid to help someone, just at least try, because you never know what someone is going through,” he said.

Sources: TapHaps, US Weekly, MassLive.

 

 

By Dan

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