Christmas Angel Pays for Senior's Groceries at Meijer in Northville

NORTHVILLE, Mich. (WJBK) - This is one of those stories that will restore your faith in people. The good news is that we're seeing more and more of it this holiday season. In Northville, an everyday angel opened her heart and her wallet to help an elderly woman she didn't even know.

Mary Bennett joined some of her friends and hopped the senior bus from her apartment at Baptist Manor on Drake Road in Farmingtion Hills and rode over to Meijer at Eight Mile and Haggerty in Northville.

Bennett stocked up on groceries and pulled her loaded shopping cart up to the checkout line. After everything was rung up, the clerk stunned the 88-year-old.

"She said, 'This lady here has paid for your groceries.' I said, 'What?' The lady [said] 'Merry Christmas' to me. I said, 'Well, thank you.' But, I'm in shock. I don't know what's going on here. And so, I turned back and she's gone," said Bennett.

A woman who she saw only briefly paid for Bennett's groceries then disappeared.

"She's not even there anymore, and she paid for my groceries. That's such a beautiful thing," Bennett explained.
Other shoppers we spoke with were thrilled to hear about the good deed that happened to her.

"I think that's awesome. That's so nice. That's what Christmas is all about, right?" said Kristen Lake.

So, what would Cheryl Marino do if someone came up to her and said her groceries had been paid for?

"I'd probably pay it forward. I'd probably go give someone else some money," she replied.

That is exactly what Bennett did. When she loaded her groceries onto the senior bus, she slipped a cash Christmas gift into the driver's pocket.

"The van driver, when I got out, I didn't give him a lot, but I just said, 'Merry Christmas' and I gave him some money," she said.