Testament to human kindness

At the grocery store this evening, I decided to treat myself and purchase premade cookies, something I haven't done in months. After spending some time reading labels, I realized there are startlingly few which are peanut-allergy friendly. Besides the overtly peanut butter ones (nutter butters, and those with peanut butter cups in them, etc.), most are made in facilities that also process peanuts. During my reading, Colton kept taking different boxes off the shelf and asking for different types of cookies. After about the tenth time of explaining why we couldn't buy each one, I opted to just make my own. There was a woman in the aisle with me who mentioned her conversations with her young daughter were similar to ours, and food allergies are the worst. I agreed with her. At this time,it dawned on me I was out of chocolate chips and told Colton so, and that we were going to buy some. Sadly, I found most chocolate chips are also processed in facilities that process peanuts. I was so disappointed. I wanted cookies, and it wasn't supposed to be this hard. I stood in front of the chocolate chips trying to read labels faster than my older son could open the bags and boxes of food already in the cart and the younger could get turned around and tangled up in the seat, and I saw the same woman walking down the baking aisle. She had clearly followed me as she didn't stop anywhere else in the aisle. She handed me a box of chocolate chip cookies, and said, "here are the ones I've found to be the best. My daughter has allergies to peanuts, eggs, gluten and dairy. These are the ones that comply and taste the best, even if they are a little crunchy. I hope this helps. Food allergies were a learning process for us too." I just about broke into tears at the kindness shown to me by a total stranger. I thanked her and she went her way and I went mine. I don't even know her name, but she took an overwhelming prospect and made it into a manageable one for me. I can only hope she knows the difference she made.

As an FYI, the brand of cookie is Back To Nature . I did find a chocolate chip brand that said their chips are processed in a gluten and peanut free facility right on the package: Guittard. See pic below.