Stacie Sherman

It’s amazing how a quick interaction with a stranger can stick with you.

Mine came early this morning around 6am when I pulled into Wawa to fill up my tank and get a cup of coffee. I got out of the car asked the guy to fill it up and handed my card to him. He said something and I could’ve sworn he said Happy Birthday, and I stopped and looked back at him and asked him how he knew it was my birthday.

He looked at me like I was strange. “I said have a nice day,” he said, and I laughed. I said “Oh, that makes more sense.” “Is it your birthday?” he asked. I said no, in a few weeks and he said his was too, February 17. I said mine was February 13.

“I’m going to be 69,” he said, and I replied, “Well you sure don’t look 69,” and he smiled. “You brightened my day,” he said. We smiled and I went inside to get my coffee.

When I came out a few minutes later he was standing by the back of my car, staring at me with tear-filled eyes.

“I just knew you were special,” he said, “and now I know why.” I asked him what he meant. “I have two of my own with autism, they just, they just warm my heart.” He must have seen the autism sticker on my car.

“It takes a special person right?” I said, “And it makes a special person.” The tears filled his eyes even more.

“The way they look at you,” he said, his voice breaking, and I said, “There’s nothing like it. They don’t need words, right?” He smiled and I reached out and patted his arm and I said, “You just keep loving them.”

“Thanks for brightening my day,” he said. “Thanks for brightening mine,” I replied, and that was that.

I thought about that nice man on my whole ride to work. How we bonded next to a gas station pump over our children. The thought of his children filled his eyes with tears, but they weren’t sad tears. They were just emotional ones and I got it. I understood him. I understood his tears. I didn’t cry, but I empathized, and I knew exactly how he was feeling. Out there on a freezing Thursday morning, 69 years old, pumping gas and worrying about his kids, thinking about his kids, I brightened his day. But I think he brightened mine more.