'Layaway Angels' Pay Off Family Accounts

Anonymous donors have been going into big box stores — Kmart in particular — and paying off layaway accounts. NPR and The Associated Press picked up the story five days ago, and in it a reporter described a young father stepping up to the layaway counter with three kids behind him to pay something on his account when a “mysterious woman” approached.

“She told him, ‘No, I’m paying for it,’ ” recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. “He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn’t, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears.”

When I heard that, I nearly burst into tears myself, and I wanted to do the same. I’m not the only one. A search for “layaway angels” brings up stories of donors paying off accounts from Oregon to North Carolina to Washington, D.C.

We’ve talked a lot, of late, about having and not having, 1 percent and 99 percent, about homeless children in Florida and about the impulse to help that moves so many of us when we see someone getting by on less than anyone needs. I haven’t fulfilled my desire to be a “layaway angel” yet, but one of the things I appreciate about it is that it’s simple, direct and without any material reward to the giver, not even a tax deduction. It’s just … giving. And hearing about people who give, in that way, is a gift in itself.

This is a time of year when charity is on our minds along with decorations and presents, and many of us have annual rituals that put our family in the role of giving to others and not just each other (or just things we ourselves do, like the “layaway angel”). Share yours here, and maybe we’ll inspire one another toward doing a little more in what’s been, for many families, a tough year.