The "have a great day" guy

This morning I picked up a gentleman and his daughter to take to the Tri-Rail station in Delray Beach, Florida. The pick up was in a lower-income area and the ride was short.

During the ride, the father was telling his high school age daughter about riding the Tri-Rail and had arranged for her transportation from the Deerfield Beach Tri-Rail station to her high school in Coconut Creek. The father was incredibly nice and "fatherly". Also, during the ride, the daughter called her mother (the father and mother are going through a separation) to see if this afternoon she could take her from the high school back to the Tri-Rail station in Deerfield Beach. The response was quick and profanity-laced. I quickly saw the reason for the separation and why the daughter was living with the father. During the ride, I also learned the family was struggling financially as the father had recently lost his job was only able to rent a room at the location I picked them up at.

I dropped them off at the Delray Beach Tri-Rail station for my $3.80. With all the tension raised by the mother over the telephone and the ensuing anger by the high schooler's reaction to her mother, the father still genuinely said to me, "Have a great day!"

As I drove away, I realized the father had dirtied up my floor mats with sand, as the house I picked them up at had no driveway. I got out, shook out the floor mats and left the parking lot heading North. While at the stop light I couldn't get what had happened out of my head and the fact that this guy, through all this turmoil, still wished me a great day! So I doubled-backed, approached them on the train platform to see if I could pick up the girl after school or take them both right now to school and bring the father back to his place, free of charge, of course -- not as a Lyft driver, but as a human being.

They graciously accepted and I took them both down to her school a half hour away, then took him home, another half hour, plus tolls on the turnpike. The ride probably cost me $10 not including rides I lost during the time, but it was a good deed for the day.