by Erin McIndoo
At the Kwik Trip in St. Joseph on a normal Friday, St. Cloud resident Tara Demarais decided to stop and put about $10 in her tank. She normally only puts this amount in because her car is a “hunk of junk,” but someone approached her before she left.
“I got back in my car and I have to get in through the passenger door and I started my car,” Demarais said. “Somebody to the right of me, which was Bill, came up to my window and asked if he could put 10 or 20 more bucks in there.”
At first Demarais declined his offer but it was clear he was doing it out of the kindness of his heart so she allowed him to do it.
“He probably saw me get in through the passenger door and thought ‘oh my gosh, this girl is having a rough day’ but every time I get in my car it’s rough,” Demarais joked. “It was so kind, he put his card in and I went to go pump the gas and he goes ‘fill it up’ and I was like what?”
Although Bill wished to stay mostly anonymous, Demarais decided to share her story on a few group pages on Facebook – St. Cloud, MN Area Community Page and It’s a Minnesota Thing – to which she has gotten a lot of positive feedback from. It seems her story has brightened many peoples’ days and brought more positivity in helping other people.
“I was shocked actually, I never thought that’d happen to me,” Demarais said. “I hear of people experiencing random acts of kindness and I like to do that too but I don’t know maybe he was just feeling generous. Everybody deserves the benefit of the doubt. Always accept an offer that’s out of kindness, it not only makes you feel good, but it makes the person doing it feel good too.”
