Community Corner
'Checkout Line Angel' Inspires Others
Her random act of kindness at a local Publix is one a Seminole Heights resident won't soon forget.
TAMPA, FL – Modern conveniences are only convenient when they work.
A Seminole Heights resident found that out the hard way recently when she made it to the end of a busy grocery store checkout line only to discover her bank card didn’t work. A swipe of a second card had the same result, leaving Anne-Marie Carola Huggins holding the bag, so to say.
Not wanting to hold up the line any longer, Carola Huggins asked the cashier to cancel her order so she could use her cellphone to find out what was wrong. After all, there was money in her account. Perhaps the bank’s network was down?
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“I never got a chance to find out,” Carola Huggins said. “The cashier spoke to me, and when I looked up from my phone, she handed me by groceries already bagged.”
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It seems a woman in line behind her had taken it upon herself to show a stranger a little kindness.
When Carola Huggins asked the cashier to point out the woman who came to her rescue, she couldn’t.
“She’s gone,” the cashier told her. “She didn’t want you to know.”
Carola Huggins, however, says she knows exactly who the good Samaritan is.
“You are the Nebraska Avenue Publix angel,” she said. “You are an example of humankind, quietly serving God without recognition, without rhetoric or platitudes.”
Carola Huggins said the Dec. 3 act of kindness at the 6001 N. Nebraska Ave. Publix struck a positive chord with more than just her.
“You raised the vibration for yourself, for me, the cashier and anyone else who witnessed your gift,” she said. “And, I will remember, and pay if forward. That’s how you change the world. Thank you Angel.”
Carola Huggins said she’s now waiting for her opportunity to pay it forward and is excited to do so.
“I’m keeping my eyes and ears open for when it will be my turn,” she told Patch.
As for those errant bank cards, she never found out what happened to them.
“They worked fine the next day,” she said.
Patch file photo
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