Woman writes heartbreaking letter to Whole Foods shoppers after a family tragedy
It was her brother on the other end of the line, and he was telling her that her father had killed himself.
Green abandoned her shopping cart in the middle of the store and fell to the floor. She wrote an account of the harrowing moment in an open letter published by the Washington Post:
"After I hung up, I started to cry and scream as my whole body trembled," Greene wrote. "Overwhelmed with emotions, I fell to the floor, my knees buckling under the weight of what I had just learned."
Then something surprising happened: other Whole Foods shoppers immediately gathered around her to attempt to comfort her and try to contact family members and friends who could help. They took her phone and asked for the passcode and the name of her husband.
Meanwhile, others discussed who could drive her home so she wouldn't have to get behind the wheel of her car in her emotional state.
In the moment, Greene was too shocked to thank the people who decided to rush to her aid, instead of looking the other way. That's why she wrote the open letter, she said.
"You encountered me, a stranger, in the worst moment of my life and you coalesced around me with common purpose, to help," she wrote. "I remember one of you asking if you could pray for me and for my father. I must have said yes, and I recall now that Christian prayer being offered up to Jesus for my Jewish father and me, and it still both brings tears to my eyes and makes me smile."
She said she often looks back on that day, and the kindness of the strangers the helped her gives her hope.
She wrote:
Read the full letter in the Washington Post.