It is sometimes easy to forget how fortunate we are. A lot of us are fully able to go to a restaurant, order the meal of our choice, retrieve it, grab utensils and something to drink, sit down and enjoy. However, there are so many individuals out there who are not granted the simple pleasures of walking or using their hands. Often, those with disabilities who are older and cannot afford around-the-clock care are left to fend for themselves and adapt their lives to a lifestyle fit to their disability, which does not always include the lifestyle fit to their desires.
A couple of regulars and an employee understood this valuable difference and have made an incredible impact on an unnamed woman who refuses to let her disability stop her from being a customer at her favorite restaurant, Qdoba, in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. David Jones, a regular at Qdoba, had recorded a video with the hopes of sending it to a few of his friends to prove that kindness truly exists in the crazy society we are all living in.
The general manager of this specific branch had instilled upon his employees that “it’s just not about making people's food, it’s about what kind of positive impact can I have on somebody else’s day.” This statement largely resonated with employee Ridge Quarles. Quarles had seen a woman repeatedly dropped off outside of his restaurant by a bus for those with disabilities.
Confined to a wheelchair, this woman could not help herself inside and would wait by the door until an employee either noticed her or another customer guided her in.
She ordered her favorite meal, “a taco salad with hot sauce and cheese for lunch or a burrito with hot sauce and cheese for dinner, according to an article published by CNN.
After assisting her to her seat, supplying with her meal, utensils, napkins and a drink Quarles asked if he could help her in any other way, not anticipating the response he was about to receive. “Sir, if you don’t mind could you help me eat,” Quarles told CNN.
Without hesitation, he put on a pair of gloves and helped her eat a meal that she loved and enjoyed. “She needs help, and if I wasn’t going to do it, no one was,” Quarles said.
It was the small act of an employee building a relationship with someone who is now a regular customer at this specific Qdoba, which truly made a difference.
"If everybody in the world would just use the simple gift that they have to maybe benefit somebody else just think what the world would be like,” Dr. Jones said.
Some of the greatest pleasures in life are more often than not, the smallest. Therefore, next time you witness somebody, disabled or not, that looks like they can use a hand, reach out to them.
If everyone displays an act of kindness every single day, think of all the good that can be done and remember, an act that may seem like nothing to you can mean the world to somebody else.
