Good Samaritan pays for stunned shoppers’ purchases at Brandon store

Winners in Brandon, Man. is pictured in July 2024. (Google Maps)

A stranger’s act of kindness turned an impromptu outing to a Brandon store into a night a grieving mother and daughter won’t soon forget.

Tania Lidster and her daughter Daylyn decided to go shopping at Winners in Brandon, Man. on Thursday night.

They weren’t in the market for anything in particular. They just needed somewhere to go, something to do.

“My husband just passed away just two weeks ago suddenly at the age of 50. I haven’t been able to go out of the house,” she told CTV News.

Lidster browsed the aisles, picking up a few Christmas presents to give the kids she cares for at the home daycare she runs. Her daughter picked out some body spray.

They went to separate cash registers to pay for their respective items. As Lidster was checking out, she heard someone talking to her daughter.

She looked over to see a woman she didn’t know standing with Daylyn. Next thing she knew, the stranger took out her credit card, tapped it and paid for her daughter’s item.

“My daughter looked over at me to see if it was someone I knew or that knew our situation that we’re going through right now,” Lidster explained.

Before she could process what was happening, the woman came to Lidster’s till and paid for her $40 bill, tapping her card casually.

“I’ve got yours too,” the woman said.

Lidster tried to protest, telling the credit card-wielding benefactor that she didn’t have to do that. The woman assured her she did.

Lidster thanked her profusely, telling her about the sudden loss of her husband, the incredible grief that came with it and how meaningful this gesture was.

“She hugged me and she said, ‘Things will get better. Pay it forward.’”

Stranger’s acts of kindness go viral

The Good Samaritan didn’t stop there.

Kim Chapman was also shopping at Winners with her daughter Mya Thursday night. They were waiting in line to pay for a fuzzy Christmas blanket and some hot chocolate mix when a woman standing by the checkout told them she would be paying for all their items.

Along with Kim’s $45 bill, she watched as the woman darted from register to register, paying for six or seven people’s hauls.

Kim asked the woman why she was doing this. She explained that she too had been on the receiving end of generosity, after a nice person paid for one of her big purchases.

“When asked what we could do to thank her, she said she’d love it if we could pay it forward somehow, buy someone a cup of coffee, shovel someone’s walkway or do an act of kindness,” Kim told CTV News in an email.

“She was such a lovely person and I loved that my daughter got to witness this random act of kindness.”

Tania was so grateful for the woman that she posted about her generous act on a Brandon residents Facebook page. Hundreds of likes and comments later, the woman’s identity remains a mystery but her message of generosity has reverberated far and wide.

“Wow that’s so kind! I love hearing things like this,” one person commented.

“This is what makes Brandon warm despite the harsh winter. This is what makes people stay,” another person wrote.

For Tania, something about the whole encounter felt fated. At the end of her husband’s obituary, she asked that in lieu of flowers, folks do something kind for someone else in his memory.

“It was kind of like it was meant to be,” she said.

“That just helped heal my heart a little bit, just knowing that there’s some good people still out there that, especially when you’re going through such a hard time, knowing there are other people that are building others up.”