The Editor, Too often, we read about and witness death, accidents and crimes on the news, and we forget that the world is still a beautiful place - if we would only give it a chance.
Indeed, it seems that the good things, the human kindness, are often overlooked by many.
Heart-warming acts are buried by the more attention-grabbing tragedies.
I am a firm believer in doing good by those who have done good by me; thus, I am here to share my story.
My name is Johnny Tai, 31. I'm totally blind in both eyes and completely deaf in one ear. Currently, I live on my own in Richmond - and have been for nearly 13 years.
Being a person with multiple disabilities and living independently, I have been exposed to many challenges, one of which has always been shopping.
Allow me to provide context. For an able-bodied person, if you need to buy 10 kilogram bag of rice, you simply hop into your car, drive to the nearest store, grab the rice, pay at the counter and drive home.
The whole process takes about five minutes. I, however, have to find where the nearest store is, figure out how to get in and out of the store, wait for bus (assuming the store is outside walking distance or if there is a street cannot safely cross), get from the bus station to the store, somehow find the rice with or without help, get to the counter, pay for the rice (requiring help to work the card machine for credit or ATM card), carry the bag of rice back to the bus station, wait for the bus, and finally get on the bus to get home.
What would normally take you five minutes, can take me two to three hours to accomplish - not even counting the hours spent towards learning bus routes.
On top of that, some of the stores around where I lived either didn't have helpful customer service, or hired people who did not speak English. Thus, I was forced to rely on grocery delivery services. such as spud.ca, which solved my problem at the time, but meant extra delivery charges.
Being a person who loves to eat, I have become quite good at cooking for myself - thus my shopping list is more complicated than Cheerios and Kraft dinners.
In addition, being low income, I need to know what's on sale, how much things cost, and all the other details. Needless to say, my life during those first few years alone was a struggle as far as grocery shopping went.
Finally, I learned my way to the nearest Save-On-Foods on Steveston Highway, in the Ironwood neighborhood, and I must now tell you, it has changed my life for the better.
The customer service here has been top-notch from the get-go. All I have to do is walk into the store, go up to the customer service desk, and within three minutes, a staff member will be standing there with a shopping cart, ready to assist me in my hunt for food.
The staff is friendly and extremely helpful. They not only help me retrieve things, they tell me of current deals and specials, what's cheap and what's not, and even provide the occasional helpful suggestion and recipe tips.
At times, when other staff members are on break, the manager himself comes out with a shopping cart to personally assist me. Even when checking out, the staff try to pack my groceries in such a way that they'd be easier to carry on my trip home.
In a world of capitalistic rush and chaotic bustles, I find the store's attitude and caring extremely touching. You, who may have never required this level of help from any store, may be wondering why I find this worthy of a news story.
But to me, this store at Ironwood and its staff have made my life much easier, much happier, and for that, I want to let everyone know that they are there.
Too often we hear of the bad things, the sad things. For this once, I want to share some goodness, some joy, with you, dear readers.
Johnny Tai
Richmond
