Emma Victoria Stokes shared a wonderful story on Instagram this week, after bumping into a real life local hero in Sainsbury’s Selly Oak.
Emma, a lifestyle blogger from South Birmingham, was shopping with her 1 year old daughter Evie, when a chance encounter with a random shopper made her day.
Emma wrote on Instagram:
I hugged a random woman in the frozen aisle in Sainsbury’s today.
Friday means shopping with my daughter as she babbles and smiles as customers pass us. A chance encounter before heading to the tills, a lady caught my eye and slowly made a beeline for us.
“Oh, isn’t she lovely!” she beamed.
“So smiley and happy. I used to have children, but they sadly died not long after birth.”
The lady told me how her entire life’s work has been around helping children and families. Some people are put on this planet to make lives better. She is certainly one of them.
Her name is Anita Mason.
She is the founder of @acornshospice
An adorable person; very lively and chatty, Anita looks good for touching 90. Her eyesight is disappearing and she hasn’t been well, but the spark is still there. Anita is a unicorn, a force of life that most of us could only aspire to be.
After laughing over some more intimate details of her past life, she started telling me about this thing called “The Book where you can find almost anyone on it!” It took me a few minutes to realise she was talking about Facebook.
I was blocking the sweetcorn with my trolley and noticed a man trying to grab a bag. I suddenly had this overwhelming urge to give her the most enormous hug. She thankfully returned it and the man waited patiently, witnessing this bizarre interaction of two random women hugging in the frozen aisle.
Anita lives local to me. I’m going to be sending her a Christmas gift. She’s spent her entire life looking after the lives of others, especially children, and just by looking in her eyes, you can tell she cares deeply.
Acorns goes above and beyond to help families across the Midlands. Their services include therapeutic and psychosocial support, support for siblings, alongside emergency and end of life care. Going full circle, they offer bereavement support, too.
Before parting ways, Anita cooed over Evie once more, and looked me in the eye before saying, “Just remember, every time she drives you mad, be grateful that she can.”
Read more from Emma on Food, Lifestyle, Hotels and Travel on her blog