Act of Kindness Helps One Woman's Holiday Be Bright

Last weekend, Waterford Police Department got a much-needed reminder — there really are good people out there.

“We post a lot of things that the Waterford Police Department deals with on a daily basis, and frankly many of them aren’t ‘good,’ Waterford Police wrote on Facebook. “People steal, there are arrests, accidents, and other things that we post that would lead you to believe that it’s always bad...and it isn’t.”

Over the weekend, something unexpected happened.

“A woman named Joyce Gardner found a wallet in the lot of one of our retail stores in town,” police wrote. “She looked inside, saw some money, and brought the wallet to the Waterford Police Department. When she handed the wallet over Community Service Officer Genung, she said, ‘Tell the woman have a nice Thanksgiving’.”

If there had only been a driver’s license and credit cards in the wallet, that would have been devastating enough.

But in the wallet was $726 in cash, set aside for Christmas presents for the woman’s family. The wallet and its contents have been returned to the owner.

“With all of the ‘bad’ things that go on, we just wanted you to know of something good that we got to help out with, and way to go Joyce Gardner, you really helped out someone,” police said.

The woman who lost the wallet sent Patch a note of gratitude for Joyce. She wrote:

“I am the person who lost the wallet and I am so blessed that Ms. Gardner found it. That was money I needed for my family and I was sick about losing it. I feel she is my angel and now we can have a very nice holiday and be thankful that there are people like “my angel” in the world. I prefer to be anonymous so if you choose to write something about this, please don’t use my name. Just call me a lucky lady.”

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Photo by bunnicula, via flickr creative commons