True Donor Loyalty

Last week I was away for half-term with the children and on Friday was in the local supermarket to get a few essentials. Ahead of me in the checkout queue was an elderly lady who was buying bread, milk, mince and a couple of other things. She was cheery enough and we exchanged a few words about the joys of queuing in supermarkets.

When it came to pay, her total was £5.89 and her face fell. Apologising profusely she said "I've only got £5 to last me, I'll have to put something back as I won't have any more money until Monday." She was quite flustered and started asking what each of the different items cost and so I gave the check out lady £1 to cover the shortfall. It wasn't particularly chivalrous (though I probably wouldn't have done it if she had been a real misery) as I was anxious about getting back to the kids whom I had left home alone in classic bad parenting style. Partly I felt sorry for her and partly I was impatient to get home!

Anyway, after a couple of minor protests, she was very grateful and took out the £5 note from her purse, and watching her I saw clearly that she had another £5 note next to it. She saw me looking and that I had noticed the second £5 note. Being British I probably would have been too polite to say anything like "you liar, you've got enough money to pay", but before I could make any comment, she said "Oh don't worry dear, that's not for me. I take £5 every week to the hospice shop next door. I'd rather go without myself than not make my donation."

I'm not really sure what the point of this tale is other than it strikes me that in these times of credit crunch, economic hardship and concerns over giving behaviours that there are still some people out there who would rather deny themselves the basics in life than not give to a charity they support. The key question of course is what has the hospice done to deserve such loyalty and commitment - I'll wager it wasn't sending her a pack with a pen or superficial survey in it...