Dear Editor,
Now that my wife and I have returned to the UK, following our wonderful holiday in your beautiful country, I feel compelled to relate to you an experience that has left us full of admiration for the young people of your town.
On July 22, whilst out exploring the town, my wife and I popped into Patricia Street Deli for a sandwich. A couple of hours later, my wife became extremely anxious because she could not find her purse, which, along with some cash, contained credit cards. I decided that, whilst she was doing some tentative research into how to cancel said cards, I would walk back into town and retrace our steps to see if the purse had somehow dropped on the pavement鈥攚e were both filled with a terrible sense of foreboding.
I visited both the shops that we had bought gifts from, and, although both proprietors were very helpful, no purse had been spotted or handed in. In a last attempt, I went to the Deli.
Oh drat, to the tenth power!! It was closed with a notice taped to the window.
I spotted three young girls making the place tidy, before going home. I gently tapped on the window, and instead of being told鈥斺�淐an鈥檛 you read, we are closed鈥�, which I was fully expecting, I was politely invited in. After explaining my predicament, and furnishing them with my wife鈥檚 name, I was so relieved to hear that they had remembered us and, after finding the purse, had handed it into the police. I tried to put some money into their tip tumbler鈥擨鈥檇 left a mere three dollars earlier in the afternoon鈥攂ut they would have none of it, and put the money in the hood of my jacket, just as they gently closed the door on me鈥攁t no time trying to get rid of me.
Thanking them profusely, they dispatched me with a smile and a 鈥渟o glad you鈥檝e found it鈥攅njoy the rest of your holiday.鈥�
I made haste to the police station, but in that haste I must have taken a wrong turn, ending up at the Fire Station. As I got to the next road junction, a car pulled up next to me and one of the Deli girls wound down her window and said 鈥淗op in, I think you need a ride.鈥�
Once at the police station, I was politely invited in and reunited with my wife鈥檚 purse.
As I walked down the path from the front of the police station, I was greeted with an open door and a smile so big you could lean on it! 鈥淚n you get, your hotel is on my way home.鈥� Once more, 鈥渘o鈥� was not going to be taken for an answer. As she dropped me at the hotel, I gently touched her arm and said 鈥淭hank you so much, you and your young colleagues have restored my faith in human nature. God Bless.鈥� And with that, away she sped, delivering that last genuine smile.
But for these selfless young girls, all probably early twenties, our holiday could have ended right there.
In a world of greed, rampant dishonesty and a general lack of consideration for others, in this hectic digital world we have created for ourselves, our contact in Jasper, with these fine upstanding young girls, has been a truly uplifting experience.
As Arnold Schwarzenager said 鈥淲e will be back.鈥�
Barry and Val Daykin
Cheshire, England
