Totally Blown Away at Tops

I was doing some running around and swung into Tops for a few items - I was dangerously low on toilet paper and peanut butter! LOL I swung into a line and was cashed out by a young man named Sal.

Sal noticed my ACU purse and the conversation went as follows:

Sal: "Are you in the military?"

Me: "No but my boyfriend is."

Sal: "Oh, what unit's he in?"

Me (sightly perplexed he asked what unit and not what branch) : "He's in the 1-64 in Mosul in Northern Iraq."

Sal: "Oh, has he been over there a year?"

Me: "No, he won't be back until the end of October."

Sal: "I've got two brother's going to Afghanistan in July. They're both really anxious to go."

Me: "Hasn't hit 'em yet." (laugh) "It will about a month before but they gotta keep their heads in the game.."

Sal: "Yeah, they just want to get going, they know they're trained and they want to get to work."

I finished cashing out at this point.

Sal: "Tell your boyfriend I said thanks. I'll pray for him."

I was so stunned I don't know how I kept walking to be honest. In a world where you can't say Merry Christmas, where you tell a kid he's grounded and he threatens to call CPS on you, this young man said he'd pray for a stranger. He didn't try to preach, he didn't try to argue the war was wrong or how upset he was about his brothers going off to an uncertain danger. He very calmly and comfortably said he'd pray for a stranger. I was so happy I smiled the whole way home, like I'd just gotten a hug from Jeff.