Guy standing outside with a sign.

"NEED GAS TO GET HOME. THREE KIDS. PLEASE HELP US."

I& #39;ve seen this man and his wife for 2 days. My spirit got heavy. Tears in my eyes. My mom and I looked at each other. She nodded.

I pulled over.

I asked him what happened and he pointed to the RV. His wife who looked like me got out. Three beautiful babies popped out, too. They yelled, "hiiiii we& #39;re on vacation!"

Their mother smiled and then wiped a tear. I knew she& #39;d told them that for comfort.

The dad hung his head.

He& #39;d come out to NJ from SC to help his father run his buffet 4 months ago. COVID hit. Shut them down. His wife is in undocumented status. They feared asking for help in fear of getting her and the kids jeopardized.

He showed me a crumbled piece of paper.

Someone called ICE on his family while in NJ. There was also a bill for a repaired transmission for the 20 year old RV that was in awful shape.

I looked up & he said shaking, "we just need a break. you know. it& #39;s a lot.

In that moment, I couldn& #39;t think. I just said, "let& #39;s go"

He followed us to a gas station. I told them to let the kids go in the store and get what they want. They looked at me in shock. We filled their gas tank.

Could I afford it?

HELL NO. But I HAD it. They didn& #39;t. They were running. Trying to survive. All they had was love & hope..

The beautiful babies thanked me in Creole and English. In joyland with giant slushies and lottery tickets (they never had them so I got them https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Gesicht mit Freudentränen" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Freudentränen">) and their mother said a prayer over me.

I noticed her baby boy who couldn& #39;t speak. I picked him up. He held my face and kissed me..

I felt blessed. In that moment, their gratitude gave me more joy than I& #39;ve felt in months.

When you feel something is real, go there.
When you start to lose hope, remember love.
When you think everything is falling apart, it& #39;s not.

Everything is in place & time for a reason.