“Have you eaten breakfast?”

I stared at him, confused. 

Milliseconds passed as I wondered what on Earth had prompted my misinterpretation of this question.

Surely he had asked something else. 

I was in the Apple store, after all. 

He must have seen the perplexed look on my face when he followed with, 

“I just know that when we are under stress, we forget to eat.”

I wanted to bawl cry into his arms.

This simple act of human kindness had reduced me to near tears. 

I was there on business. 

My phone battery was dying mid-day, every day and had been for months and now, as I sat by it, waiting for important calls from doctors, it felt more dire than ever. 

It was the straw that broke the camel’s back- the reason I’d finally relented to replace my battery. 

And now I found myself in front of this young man, asking if I had remembered to eat breakfast. 

“Yes.”  I managed.  “I don’t normally, but today, I ate.”

He smiled.

And I left with the reminder that, life or death, humanity perseveres. 

Camille Vaughan Photography