ROCK SPRINGS — When Ted Oswald went grocery shopping at Walmart this Wednesday he had an incredible experience that filled him with gratitude and hope.
“I had an unbelievable experience. Never in my life did I expect anything like this to happen to me,” the 85-year-old Oswald told SweetwaterNOW.
Oswald is a veteran and he wears his veteran hat everywhere. That hat caught the attention of a young man who was doing his own grocery shopping. Oswald’s daughter, Lori, described the man as her dad’s ‘Christmas Angel’.
“This gentleman was coming down, he passed me and he stopped and turned to me and he said ‘thank you for your service’, and I said ‘thank you very much’,” Oswald recalled.
Already feeling grateful for the comment, Oswald went and did his shopping only to meet the man again in the checkout line. He heard the man ask the cashier where the Walmart gift cards were, and the cashier went and retrieved one. Oswald said that the man and the cashier spoke for a moment before the man left with his purchases.
“Of course I didn’t hear what they were saying. When he left and I went up, the cashier had this gift card in her hands and she said to me, ‘this man said to give you this gift card’, and I said ‘really?’ She handed it to me, and I said to her, ‘well what is this for?’” Oswald said.
The gift card was worth $100, and was a gift from the gentleman to Oswald.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Oswald said. “The man left, I didn’t get time to thank him. I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself, nothing.”
The gift card covered the cost of Oswald’s groceries, and he was overcome with gratitude and appreciation. Oswald hopes that this story will reach the man so he can give his thanks.
“I’m 85 years old, I’ve never had anything like that happen to me in my life. It’s just unbelievable. Hopefully this gentleman can read this and I can thank him that way.” ~ Ted Oswald
He added that he wants people to hear this story to let everyone know that there are good people in our community and throughout our country.
“There was a lady behind me and she had a Rock Springs Police Department jacket on, and she looked at me and she shook her head and said, ‘doesn’t it give you faith in humanity? There definitely are some good people’,” he recalled.
“It’s a story that I think people should see and people should read, and people should know that there are good people yet,” Oswald continued. “We hear so much doom and gloom and hatred and everything. Why don’t we have stories like this on the news to uplift people and let people see and understand that we do have good people in this country,” Oswald said.
When Oswald left the store, he looked around to try to spot the man, but he couldn’t find him.
“If I could just go and thank him,” Oswald said. “It’s unbelievable that somebody, to me, would have that kind of kindness and generosity to give me $100. I appreciated it to no end.”
