Pay it forward

I would like to thank the kind patron at Looney’s restaurant in Bel Air for doing something that has never happened to me before.
 
Last week, I was celebrating my friend’s 86th birthday with several other people, and we were having a fun time, toasting and laughing and even singing ( quietly!)  as we regaled the birthday girl with tales of  her long and exuberant life. We were four senior citizens out for the first time since the COVID, and we had lots to celebrate.
 
After cocktails, shrimp dinners and several glasses of good wine, we began to  wrap up our evening. When we asked for the check, the waitress whispered to me that the table next to us had paid the bill. I sat in stunned silence. She continued by saying he did not want his name mentioned, but that he hoped we enjoyed our dinner.
 
As we left the restaurant  that night with an even more celebratory glow than when we arrived, I thought about our benefactor. Why did he treat us? Did any of us know him? Was this his MO, and did he treat people often.  I will never know the answer to my questions, but I do have a renewed faith in people because of one man’s thoughtful contribution to an already happy occasion for us.  If he is reading this, I hope our “knight in shining armor” knows how thankful four elderly people are. We will always remember….
 
And, I know I will pay it forward---when I can go out to dinner again.