

A woman heading home from work in Midtown decided to take off her boots and give them to a barefoot homeless woman on a 3 train earlier this week. She shared photos on Facebook and explained, "You see, I can buy another pair of shoes tomorrow... It's the middle of November and she has no where to go, so the least I could do is give her a pair of shoes." What would Police Commissioner Bratton think?

Brown, 26, an assistant at an investment firm, says she was initially reluctant to write about the Monday night encounter on social media; she told Today, "I wasn't doing it for attention, but people started coming up to me saying, 'That was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.' Everybody was so kind. You want people to pass those things on, and see something like that and do something themselves." And there was another person who showed his kindness as well—here's Brown's account:

A homeless, mentally handicapped women got on the subway BAREFOOT. No socks, shoes or anything. I asked her what shoe size she wore and we were the same. I gave her the shoes off my feet and they fit perfectly. She couldn't have been more gracious. So I stood on the subway for 15 min in my mixed matched socks, then right before I got off the subway a gentleman offered me an extra pair of socks to go over top of my small thin ones. You see, I can buy another pair of shoes tomorrow. And he probably has plenty of socks at home. It's the middle of November and she has no where to go, so the least I could do is give her a pair of shoes. So, I walked 6 blocks home in socks getting strange looks and comments made about me... but now she's able to wear a pair of shoes each day and suffer a little less. Pay it forward y'all. And shout out to the guy who gave me the extra socks! They helped a ton!

In an interview with the Daily News, Brown explained, "Usually on the subway I’m like, ‘No one look at me, no one talk to me,’ I’m just on my phone like everyone else," but the woman's condition cut through her protective bubble: "Her toes were crossed over each other and freezing, and I couldn’t imagine not having something on my feet."

Brown emphasized she wanted to share a message of compassion, "Right now there's so many terrible things happening, I mean absolutely terrible things happening, and I wanted to share some positive energy. I wasn't trying to do that to pat my own back, I just wanted to be like this was really cool, this was an awesome moment for me, and I wanted to share with other people. And I can't believe how something so small turned into something so great."