A few years ago I became a mother, got a divorce, lost my job, shattered my knee, and moved across the country. This was on top of trying to go to school, care for my son, and work. All in all, things at the time were far from ideal, as I lived day-to-day trying to make ends meet.

When I moved to California, I needed to get a form from the Department of Motor Vehicles in order to get auto insurance. The form cost five dollars – five dollars that I did not have. I was truly out of money, on welfare, and eating through food stamps. I started to beg the DMV clerk to let me have the form, but policy would no allow her to give it to me. I was at my wits end, and began to cry clutching my infant son to me when all of the sudden another clerk hands my clerk five dollars and said that "her customer wanted to pay the fee." At the same time another customer in line gave me a $20 dollar bill to pay the fee, and another customer gave me $5. Even once they realized the fee was paid they continued to press their bills into my hand. In a daze, I paid the fee, received the form, and stumbled towards to door, shocked at the kindness of strangers and embarrassed to have been so out of control in the DMV of all places!

As I left the building a woman came up to me and put something into my hand. I got to my car, put my son in his seat, and opened my hand only to find lying there $126.00!! Four strangers had given me their hard earned money and enough hope to make all the daily trials in my life seem so insignificant. I made photocopies of the currency prior to spending it and still cry each time I look at the copies.

The most amazing part of all is that the DMV where this happened is in the "bad part of town" and populated with recent immigrants, welfare parents, working-poor families, and others barely just getting by. I have always wanted to thank them for they gave me so much more then money that day. God blessed me through them and I have thought of them so many times over the years as I have given money or food to someone in need. They truly made an indelible image in my heart and an everlasting mark of soul graffiti.