DESPITE being stuck at busy cash register with no money, a crying baby and a $US200 grocery bill she couldn’t pay, Jamie-Lynne Knighten almost didn’t accept a random act of kindness.

The California mother initially declined an offer from the man standing behind her at the supermarket to pay for her groceries, when he simply asked “May I?”.

Little did she know he would leave such a lasting impression.

In a Facebook post, Knighten explained how she had left her debit card at home and was about to request the supermarket, Trader Joe’s in Oceanside, California, hold her groceries.

Looking stressed and holding her fussy five-month-old daughter, the man noticed her predicament.

“I’m overwhelmed and didn’t think I heard him correctly so he repeats ‘May I? May I take care of your groceries?’,” Knighten said in the post she wrote after a sleepless night.



Knighten said her first response was: “How sweet, but no thank you, you don’t have to do that.”

But she said the man, who she came to know as Matthew Jackson, calmly repeated the offer again and so Knighten thankfully accepted. He only asked that she “pay it forward” by doing it for someone else.

“Thanking him endlessly through my tears I ask his name and where he works before parting ways,” Knighten said.

media_camera Matthew Jackson has been praised for a random act of kindness.

A week later Knighten decided to ring the man’s work and speak to his boss to let him know what an incredible employee he had. She also wanted to find out if she could get his last name to send him a thankyou card and small gift.

“I hear crying on the other end of the line and my heart sinks … I just knew something was wrong,” Knighten said.

The man’s boss told Knighten that Matthew was killed in a car accident the night after he paid for her groceries.

“Not even 24 hours after meeting him. Gone. Just like that. How? Why? I don’t understand,” Knighten said.

“He was a year younger than me and engaged to be married.

“His boss explained to me how amazing this young man was … what he did for me was just who he was as a person.”

media_camera Californian mum Jamie-Lynn Knighten has paid tribute to Matthew Jones.

Knighten said she was moved to write the Facebook tribute to the 28-year-old as she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“I am trying to make sense of something that will never be fully understood,” she said.

“I thought for sure I would get the chance to see him again, give him a hug and thank him at least once more in person. Now I won’t get that chance, but more importantly no one else will get the chance to meet him. And that breaks my heart.”

Amazingly, his family members saw the Facebook post and his mother, LeeAnn Krymow, responded: “Hearing what my son did for a complete stranger just one day before he tragically died has been such a gift,” she said.

“My Matthew touched so many and it’s amazing that he continues to touch people even after he has left this world. I will miss him terribly … the pain is beyond words. But I know that his legacy will live on.”

Ms Krymow told The San Diego Union-Tribune that her son had a long history of putting others first.

She told the paper of a time under the hot sun of Phoenix, Arizona, when he jumped out of his car at traffic lights to give a stranger a bottle of water.

“I knew my boy was like this,” she said. “He loved to be kind. He was just a really special kid. So cute, so intelligent, so talented, an accomplished musician. You wonder why these things happen.”

Matthew’s brother-in-law Miguel de la Mora said news of his good deed did not come as a surprise.

“I wasn’t shocked, I thought, ‘Yup that was Matt he would do something like that’,” he told an NBC News affiliate.

Mr de la Mora said he hoped Matthew’s act of kindness would encourage others to “pay it forward”.

“It’s a good reminder to kind of go, this is Matt’s life, this is his legacy, this is how he lived,” he said.

Knighten now says is on a mission to honour Matthew and share the story of his kindness.

“May you rest in peace Matthew. My thoughts and prayers are with your family. I truly hope they know how well they raised you and what impact you’ve had on this world,” she said.

Facebook and Twitter tribute accounts called Matthew’s Legacy have been set up to honour Matthew and “spread hope and kindness to everyone”.

Read Knighten’s full post here.

Most nights I don't sleep because I have a 5 month old and a 2 1/2 year old.. If one is sleeping, the other is usually... Posted by Jamie-Lynne Knighten on Friday, 20 November 2015

A little kindness goes a long way Celebrate World Kindness day with some kindness of your own

Originally published as Supermarket kindness ends in worst way