“I’ve brought back the wheelchair you lent me for my father. He passed away,” she said. “How much do I owe you?”

Sharing our sympathies, I told her she could leave an offering if she liked, but we didn’t charge for borrowing a wheelchair.

“Someone told me would charge me 1500Q ($200). Another said I’d have to pay 200Q ($26), but I only have 50Q($7.50),” she said.

I assured her any amount she wanted to give would be enough and the stories she heard from others were lies. Then she shared about someone else she knew that couldn’t walk, was a widow, and really needed a chair. Realizing our patients had cancelled and we had some free time, we offered to go see her right away and gathered up the same wheelchair she just returned.

A little surprised, but grateful she directed us to the place. We drove to the neighborhood, parked on the street, and walked a short dirt path to a simple, adobe house. After knocking on the door, we were greeted by an elderly woman struggling to walk with two canes.   But it wasn’t her inability to move that struck me, but her beautiful smile. She radiated love and contentment. We soon learned this woman we’d gone to see was the mother-in-law of the woman who returned the chair.

The woman could have easily kept the wheelchair and taken it to her mother-in-law, especially after the stories she had heard about what we might ask of her.   She didn’t. Instead, she faced the truth and completed her promise and returned the chair. As a result, she discovered the truth and helped provide a chair, along with a clean conscience, to her mother-in-law.

As we left, she said, “You all are different here. You really love people and you love us more than even our own sisters. Thank you.”