Need a break from bad news? Need your faith in human nature restored?
Meet Paulette LaRamee, Sue McAllister and Laurie Haney, three Concord women who don’t know each other, yet have a common denominator that will make your heart sing.
Each, independent from one another, wrote to the Monitor and recalled the kindness of a stranger, done not to garner votes or praise, but to be, well, nice.
Imagine that.
These were anonymous gestures, witnessed first-hand by these people at a local restaurant, a local coffee place and a local grocery store.
So before returning to the world of politics and war, pull up a chair and listen to three stories, each a breath of fresh air.
Laurie Haney
Haney grew up in Boscawen and still lives there, the mother of two who says she’s been happily married for 27 years.
She owned a beauty salon in Penacook for 18 years, and now does hair on the side while working at her new job as a cashier and grocery bagger at Hannaford’s.
And there, on April 14, Haney was working as cashier on the express lane early in her shift, which began at 8 that morning. A customer loaded his groceries onto the rolling black surface.
“A younger man, early 40s,” Haney said. “Tall, kind of good looking, very friendly. I was ringing up his groceries.”
The man paid with a debit card and asked Haney for $25 cash back, which she handed to him. Then he handed it back to her. She thought she’d made a mistake.
She hadn’t.
“I want you to pay for that man’s groceries,” the customer said, referring to another man, perhaps in his late 60s, who was next in line.
The older gentleman had no idea what had happened when he stepped up to cash out. His bill was $45, meaning he owed just $20.
“He was dumbfounded,” Haney said. “I asked if he knew that man, and he said not at all. He looked at me and said what do I do now? I told him to enjoy his groceries and enjoy his day. I felt really good about that, and it gave me goose bumps.
“That’s why I wrote the letter to the Monitor,” Haney continued. “I was happy to be part of that.”
Sue McAllister
She’s a career nurse, the last 12 years as a veterans affair nurse in Manchester. Her husband died from lung cancer five years ago.
McAllister moved to Concord five months ago, afraid of the violence she’d seen near her home in Manchester.
A few weeks ago, McAllister treated herself to dinner at the Barley House, ordering a burger and fries and enjoying a quiet evening alone.
“I noticed this couple across the room while I was looking around waiting for my food,” McAllister said. “They were in their early 50s, but I can’t go into much detail and remember what someone looks like when I’m just looking around at a restaurant. Only when I’m giving someone a shot at the VA.”
She ate and the waitress asked if she wanted anything else. The check, McAllister said.
“She said it was taken care of,” McAllister said. “She said they paid for it and they paid for the tip. She said they were paying it forward. I could not believe it. I wish I could have thanked them, but they were gone.”
Why, McAllister wondered? Maybe the man was a veteran, had noticed her at the VA hospital and then recognized her at the restaurant.
“To do that for a complete stranger, I don’t know,” McAllister said. “I wish I had a chance to talk to them and ask them.”
Instead, the experience gave her a chance to reflect on something that was in sharp contrast to recent events in her life.
“The last murder in Manchester in November was one house behind me,” McAllister said. “I heard the gunshot and thought, ‘This is nuts.’ It’s nice to know there is some good in the world.”
Paulette LaRamee
Few people could have used some kindness more than LaRamee on April 21, when the retired state employee, a lifelong Concord resident, pulled up to the drive-through window at Dunkin’ Donuts on Manchester Street in South Concord.
Three weeks before, her 47-year-old son, Paul LaRamee, who had been homeless for nearly a month, was found dead in nearby woods. A cause has not been released.
“I had a bad day yesterday,” Paulette LaRamee said last week. “My husband’s doing okay. We’re coping the best we can. It was a shock to the whole family.”
Paulette called her son “a big bear” of a man, 6 foot 3 and weighing about 250 pounds. He left a daughter, now an adult living in Arizona.
Paul liked riding his bike near Gorham Pond while growing up in Dunbarton. He also rode a motorcycle, loved 4-wheeling and cars, and watched after his little sister, Nicole, closely.
“He was funny,” Paulette said. “He would laugh a lot, he had a good personality and he was very protective of her.”
A woman of great faith, Paulette said she asked God for a sign that Paul had gone to heaven. “I said my prayer like I always do,” Paulette said. “Then the next day I was out the door for a hair appointment and heard a bird and I looked up and saw the brightest red cardinal, and that was my sign he was up there.”
On the 21st of last month, she received a reason to keep the faith down here as well. Driving to her volunteer job at the Medicaid dental director’s office, Paulette stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts, ordered a blueberry muffin and waited in line, behind a white Ford Explorer.
Then came her turn to pay.
“The girl at the window said the woman ahead of you already paid,” Paulette said. “I just thanked her. I didn’t get the license plate. It looked like a woman.”
Paulette’s volunteer work, two surviving children and six grandchildren have helped ease at least some of her pain, kept her mind occupied.
And that blueberry muffin made her feel a little better, too.
“Some people like to remain anonymous when they do a good deed,” Paulette said. “And that makes it a little bit nicer.”
(Ray Duckler can be reached at 369-3304 or rduckler@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @rayduckler.)