Military wife gets $500 gift of kindness from stranger

By Lisa Heyamoto
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

	DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES After a casual conversation with a man in line at the Woodinville Post Office, in which Karin Santos mentioned her husband serving in Iraq, the man presented her with a wad of cash in the parking lot.
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It had been an emotional few months. Her husband Alberto had left for Iraq in November with the rest of the Stryker brigade, and her co-workers had surprised her with a care package of goodies to help him through a holiday overseas. The Woodinville couple had been married only a few months, and Santos was feeling pretty alone as a military wife so far from the support at Fort Lewis.

But a kindhearted man at the post office changed everything for her when he said he knew the sacrifice a couple makes when a husband goes to war, blessed her, handed her a roll of money and walked away.

"Within a blink of an eye, I started crying," said Santos, 32. "I still can't believe it."

All she knows about him was gleaned in a 15-minute conversation. The line was long, the people impatient. She got to talking with the man ahead of her when he noticed the destination of the care package she was mailing.

He said he had served in the Army for more than 20 years and had fought in Vietnam. He said he understood.

When they reached the front of the line, they wished each other a happy holiday and went their separate ways. But as she got in her car to leave, he approached her — with the money in hand.

Santos protested, said it was way too much. But he'd been well-provided for, he said, and he wanted the same for her.

She didn't know what to do with it at first, she said, couldn't even bring herself to look at it or count it. So she put it in the cup holder and drove, shaking, to her mother's house. She never even got his name.

"I feel so helpless in a way, because I thanked him probably 10 times while I was standing there bawling, but it just felt like the thanks I gave him there wasn't enough," she said.

Santos said the roll of money ended up totaling about $500. She said she wrote her husband a letter to help her figure out what to do with the money.

"I know that there are really good people in this world, but it feels at times like there are so few," she said. "It has nothing to do with the money, it was his action that totally caught me off guard. This man's gesture really changed my whole way of thinking."

Lisa Heyamoto: 206-464-2149 or lheyamoto@seattletimes.com

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