Haverhill Mom Thanks Stranger For Act Of Kindness At Market Basket

HAVERHILL (CBS) - A young Haverhill mother is looking for the kind stranger who touched her heart with an act of kindness at the grocery store.

Nichole Lemieux is mom to a six-year-old son and a daughter who's almost two. This year will be a very merry Christmas for the family.

"We just got this apartment after almost two-and-a-half years being homeless. She's never seen a Christmas tree. She's never seen a picture of Santa. She's never slept in her own bed. It's one of the best things we could have asked for for Christmas," Lemieux said.

Nichole was food shopping Tuesday night at Haverhill's Central Plaza Market Basket when she ran into a friend. She got emotional telling the woman about living in the shelter, and the bright new chapter ahead. Little did she know, a kind stranger was listening.

"He said, 'Did I hear you say you were in a shelter?' I said, 'Yes. My children and I have been in a shelter for just over a year. We moved on Monday.' He took out his wallet. Grabbed a $100 bill and handed it to me and said, 'Buy yourself something nice for Christmas.' I hugged him and I lost it."

Now Nichole is hoping to find that person, to try and convey what that gesture truly meant to her.

"He has no idea what he's done for us. At the end of a very hard year, that was unbelievable," she said.

She'd like to buy him a coffee, and to say thank you once again.

"No one has ever done something like that. I didn't realize people like that still exist," Lemieux added.