Back in late July Therra Jaramillo, a writer from Atlanta, went to Whole Foods to get groceries and food for her animal rescue operation. Therra has been struggling financially since her husband died of cancer four years ago, so it was not an ordinary day at the grocery store for her. “I met the love of my life, Native American performer John Jaramillo and we married. It was bliss on a level I’d never known before. When I lost him to vicious brain cancer in 2014 after a roller coaster ride of a year and a half, I was exhausted and beat. We had insurance, but his illness still took everything we had,” she told Bored Panda. As it turns out, she only went to the store because her friend sent her a gift card. Otherwise, she would have been unable to buy anything.

Little did Therra knew that at the same store a famous rapper Ludacris had been shopping too. They accidentally met each other at check out, and he kindly offered to pay for her groceries. When asked how did it made her feel, Therra said, “My life changed after the Ludacris’ random act of kindness. At first, I was embarrassed that the story went viral. I thought, ‘Oh great. Now the whole world knows my financial woes.’ I felt kind of…I don’t know…ashamed. But then I started getting notes and tweets from all over the world. The good people who had been through real hardship and wanted to encourage ME. One woman wrote that she’d recently lost her husband to brain cancer and the year before they’d lost their girls in a car accident. My God. My heart shattered, thinking about what she had been through. And she wanted to encourage ME. I was humbled.’

Read how the story unfolded below

However, the story has not ended here. Therra decided to repay Ludacris for his kindness and found the best way to do that. “I came up with the idea to raise money for his foundation because in addition to be a writer, and I worked in non-profits for decades. I thought, well, he doesn’t need me to pay back the money…he did that purely from his good heart…but what if I can raise some bucks for his foundation? So I did. I started a Facebook fundraiser. It was successful, and I was so touched by the response. I wanted to raise the $375 he was kind enough to spend on me and my rescued pets, and it ended up raising about $1200. I think people felt good bringing back the faith in humanity,” she said. Therra shared the invaluable story this experience had taught her, “In our world, we all have the ability to be good, but we often choose otherwise. I will tell you that I learned this: Kindness is a currency. Perhaps the only currency where the more you spend, the richer you get.”

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