Stranger Gives Michigan Store Her Stimulus Money to Stay Open

It's literally the definition of a random act of kindness.

Victorian Purses by Sue is a store in St. Charles in Saginaw County. They sell supplies and offer classes for knitting, crocheting, beading, etc. They've never had a problem with customers coming in...until the pandemic.

Their business went down by 50% and shipment of product stopped coming in. The owner, Sue Bishop, told Ahmad Baijey from Mid-Michigan Now that it was "very difficult" to stay afloat.

And then, one day, a customer came to the cash register and told one of the store's volunteers that she had "something to share" with them - she handed them an envelope, full of cash. $1,000 to be exact. It was all of her government stimulus money.

She told the volunteer to pay rent or use it wherever they need it. Interestingly enough, Sue says that it adds up to two months' rent for the store.

The woman is a regular customer at the store and had been asking about how they're holding up since the beginning of the stay-at-home orders.

Sue told Mid-Michigan Now that all she wants to do is give the woman a hug; unfortunately, that's the one thing that we shouldn't be doing right now.

This is absolutely amazing and now I feel totally guilty about not giving my stimulus money to a local business. I suppose that it's gestures like this that make us all a bit more generous, no?

Big thanks to Ahmad Baijey for putting on his reporter hat to bring us this story!