Photo: Álvaro Romero / Facebook, Mauro / TN
An uplifting story to brighten your day!
By Hawthorn Martin — Written on Mar 11, 2023
In today’s world of chaotic news and hard life choices, we need a little good news every now and then. One man from San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, needed to hear that good news more than most of us.
Mauro was a hard worker from the area who took to the streets to provide cleaning services for passing cars’ windshields. He would arrive at the same intersection every day to offer work to passing cars in order to support his family.
He was supporting his wife, Ruth, and their two children, a two-year-old boy named Santiago and a six-year-old girl named Guadalupe.
His daughter would come with him to the traffic stop, sit to the side and do her homework as he worked.
It was dangerous for her to stay at home with Ruth and her younger brother due to another family member who had developed a dangerous relationship with alcohol, so Guadalupe would join her father every day to wait for work.
For four years, Mauro put everything he had into supporting his family, waiting for a stroke of good luck. It was a terrifying and disheartening situation, and Mauro told TN.com that he often worried for his own life.
“I thought I was going to die at the traffic light,” he told reporters.
What he didn’t know was that the kindness of a stranger was about to change his life.
In May, a neighbor named Álvaro Romero published a photo of Mauro and his daughter at the stoplight on Facebook, and wrote this heartwarming message:
“I don't know his name, I know him because I saw him working on the street, doing odd jobs. She is his little girl, besides he has his wife and a younger child. Here he is seen working while his daughter does her homework. That little girl deserves every opportunity. Let's help, thank you ”.
The post went viral, gaining almost 5,000 shares before reaching another man named Agustín, a stranger who had once been a client of Mauro’s. Agustín was in a position to help, and approached Mauro to offer him a permanent job opportunity with a construction company.
He offered the family an advance salary to move out of their uncertain living situation, and find the peace that they had so desperately been hoping for.
The change was astounding. Mauro admitted that he had feared the position was temporary, and he would be forced back onto the street, but with a permanent, reliable job, and a boss that truly cared about the wellbeing of his family, dreams have become much closer to reality.
Mauro’s wife Ruth was also offered domestic work by her neighbors, and the couple was able to keep chasing their dreams and enroll both of their children in school.
"We are happy,” Mauro said. “Now we have to get up early every day to go somewhere, we know that at night we will be under a roof again and that when the month ends, we will collect our money.”
The couple admits that it hasn’t been the most perfect transition in the world, and oftentimes Mauro and his wife struggle to say no to buying things for their children after having had so little for so long, but it’s an incredible step.
Mauro overflowed with emotion as he spoke to reporters and shared that he was now able to take peaceful walks with his family in the evenings, something he had only dreamed of before.
The family has begun to plan for future investments such as motorbikes and further work for Ruth, a great sign of their life turning permanently towards bright days.
The kindness of strangers recognizing others in need, and connecting them with the help they needed is a heartwarming story that we all long to hear.
With overwhelmingly negative and dramatic news coming in from all over the world, it can be hard to stop and remember the power we can have in our own communities by just showing kindness to strangers.
It’s a breath of fresh air to get a break from the doom and gloom and hear about some of the good happening in the world, no matter how small.
Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer living in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.