Read, Watch or Listen

Stories were sent to us in different formats—Audio, video and written. If you’d like to view stories for any of these formats, use the links below.

Written Stories
Video Stories
Recorded Stories

Share A Story

Do you have a good values-based story to tell? It doesn’t have to be perfect to make a difference in someone else’s life.

The Parking Meter Bank

One Christmas my husband and I traveled from our home in Utah to visit family. Our first stop was to visit my parents on the Oregon coast. My mother gave me a gift that day that will last a lifetime.
A simple plastic parking meter bank.

We continued north into Washington State to visit his family, but on the way had some mechanical problems. We took the nearest off-ramp and pulled safely into a driveway just off the freeway. It was late, but a light gleamed from the window so we went to the door to ask permission to sleep there until a part store opened.
The woman who answered was very kind, allowing us to stay and offering directions to town.
We had to unload a few things from the truck to be able to sleep and one of the things unloaded was that parking meter bank, still in its long box.

The next morning my husband headed off on foot towards town, but were soon offered a ride from the nice lady, and we were back on the road shortly afterwards.
It wasn't until we reached our destination when we realized that we had left the parking meter in the driveway where we had stashed it under our truck. It was gone and there was no going back for it.

Until one day over a year later, when we were back in Oregon my mom got out of her car to greet us, with that same bank in her arms, grinning from ear to ear. I couldn't believe my eyes! We had never even told her that we had lost it, yet there it was!

It turns out that the nice lady found the box in her driveway, and read the information on the shipping label, to get my mother's name. She then contacted her and told her all about what had happened. And it also turned out that we had a cousin who lived just a few miles from that very same exit where we broke down. And he went there and picked up our parking meter bank, held on to it for quite some time until he saw my mother next, and from there it got back to me.

So now because of those very special people, I was given the same Christmas gift twice. It was truly amazing to me... and now every time that bank gets filled up, I donate my miracle money to a local charity, to "pass on" my fortunate good luck!

Story was submitted anonymously