A Stranger’s Kindness is Returned Years Later

This week’s look on the bright side tells the story of a small act of kindness and how it returned full circle. Sabreena met a young man who never forgot a stranger he met and the impact he had on his life.  Over a decade later, he’s showing his gratitude and paying it forward in his own act of kindness. Here’s that story.

Sabreena Daly, Reporting

Jervin Robinson was only seventeen years old when he met Lincoln Saunders by happenstance. Sitting on a park bench thinking to himself about not having enough money for food, Jervin asked a stranger for help.

Jervin Robinson

Jervin Robinson, Helped by Good Samaritan
“I was sitting on one of the benches and I saw Mr. Lincoln  was walking from Roger’s Stadium side, coming up to the bridge, you know, to the gas station. When he reached close, it was like something in my mind told me to ask. I only had two dollars on me at the time and he was the only one passing. No vehicles or anything. My mind said to ask this man for two dollars.”

Lincoln Saunders was a retiree. He also had no wife or children. When he met Jervin, he decided to strike up a conversation.

Jervin Robinson
“He asked me what I wanted the two dollars for. I told him to buy bread, you know, I bread eat, eat like half. But some people said I eat for one. You know you wanted food. Yes. He dug down in his pocket and came up. He said he didn’t have two dollars. He said he only had one-fifty.  So I told him that I had two dollars I could put towards it to buy the bread. I told him I would appreciate that. He was on his lunch break heading back to work but then he started to talk to me and share that he was a scout leader. He said he liked watching movies, war movies.”

Sabreena Daly

“At this point, this was the first conversation you guys were having?”

Jervin Robinson

“Yes ma’am. Yes ma’am. Like about 15 or 10 minutes.”

That brief conversation blossomed into a friendship. Lincoln then mentored young Jervin.  A short while after, Jervin found himself in trouble with the law. He was remanded to prison for a case of robbery that he did not commit and Saunders was the first person he called.

Jervin Robinson

“So I only know his  number to heart. Honestly if i knew my mom’s number i would have still contacted Mr. Saunders.”

Sabreena Daly

“Why?”
Jervin Robinson

“Because we got really close since we met and I thought of all the good he did for me. And now I found myself in a problem. I knew my mother, she couldn’t really come out to help me because she made Johnny Cakes.The man came and brought back some stuff and tried to hook me up with a lawyer. He was to come back the next day but said he didn’t have enough finances. So he said, well I could catch the bus from the city to Hattieville. But now, after the bus at the roundabout, you’d have to catch a taxi to go to jail. It was his choice and I wasn’t thinking about it but after that, I realized that he would walk from the roundabout to the prison. I wasn’t thinking about it.”

Many times, Saunders would walk from the Hattieville junction to meet his friend Jervin at the Belize Central Prison and after Jervin’s release, they kept in touch. He made frequent visits to his senior pal and offered help in any way he could, but in 2021, he noticed a change in his friend. The diabetic and hypertensive elder was declining in health.

Jervin Robinson

“His shirt was on the half of him and he was leaning all the way over the chair. He was responding. I asked him if he goes to his room and he said yes. I asked how. He said he shuffled his way to his room. But based on what i saw, from his chair to his room, and in three days he was wearing the same clothes, and in that condition, i knew he was not well. He needed help. I couldn’t do much but I told him that he needs to leave from here.”

Jervin and his mother took in Saunders and his younger brother, Clyde, also a senior that required supervision. Both elders have since made the Robinson residence their new home.

Jervin Robinson
“He would sleep down there and Mr. Saunders here. But I said no, we will build him a bed and that’s how I left him in that corner. He would go out there and come back and anything he sees on the street side, anything anyone would give him, he brings home.”

Caring for the elderly is no easy task and Saunders has not only fallen in age, but his underlying conditions also impact the quality of his life and the challenge of his care. In a moment of reflection, Saunders shared how much this act of kindness means to him.

Lincoln Saunders

Lincoln Saunders, Good Samaritan

“I never realized that the time was coming or the time would come like this, that the same young man that I helped would be helping me now; And that’s the reason why I believe in helping people because you never know what could happen.  When I’m done helping you, I forget about that, I’m gone. Having, um, this young man helping me and what not, I appreciate what he is doing for me because then even some of your own children wouldn’t want to bother with that anyway. And therefore what he’s doing for me, I’m very grateful for him, for what he’s doing for me, because then not all children anyway would go through this. They would put them in a home. But what he’s doing for me is very important because I would instruct him how to do certain things and he would follow my instruction, right?  And concerning the various medicines, what to use and what not. Like I said, I appreciate all that he has done for me and this doing for me at the moment.”

Sabreena Daly

“You are crying, what are you feeling?”

Jervin Robinson

“Emotional. Like the father Just touch me again. You know, to hear that with what i do. It’s a  struggle, but I know he still has brains and things regardless, so I know he, you know, and this touches me spiritually, so I could do more good. Even though I’m tired.”
If you ask either of these men, in both their times of need, they would have told you that they stumbled upon an angel. What began as a meeting of strangers over a dollar and fifty cents has become a strong paternal-like bond, a friendship of seventeen years and an example that an ounce of kindness can reap a heap of reward.

Looking on the Bright Side, I’m Sabreena Daly.