Everything happens for a reason. Every small choice can create lasting change—and even save a life.
That’s what David Couture was reminiscing about, recently, when he shared with GNN a miraculous story from more than a decade ago.
He moved into a townhouse in Dover, New Hampshire, that had a tiny washing machine, which caused him to venture into what he calls “the most unpleasant of places”—the Laundromat.
Because the middle-aged man felt so irritated by the “lowly place”, he decided to slip off to the Chinese restaurant next door for a tiki cocktail “to drown those poor-boy sorrows”.
“The gentleman sitting next to me was well on his way to getting quite intoxicated.”
“Being a conversationalist, I proceeded to strike up some dialogue with him and found him to be really sad and down about himself.
“I tried my best to prevail upon him that life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain, and that he had everything to live for.”
As David departed to check on his laundry, he handed him a business card and told him if he ever needed someone to talk to, he could call anytime.
That evening’s chain of ‘small’ events—and David’s “self-imposed misery” during a “horrible laundromat experience”—was not only uplifting for all, it was set to save a life.
“Later that evening my phone rang and it was a woman who asked for me by name, with both a sad and grateful inflection in her voice.
“Not sure what you said to my husband, but I want to thank you, because when I got home from work today there was a note on the kitchen table and he said that he was not coming back home and was going to kill himself.”
He did come home that evening, and told his wife he’d met a man at the Chinese restaurant who made him feel like life was worth living.
David never would have thought that a trip to the laundromat would provide such a huge blessing.
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But, reminding a stranger about the importance of gratitude not only saved a family, it left David himself with a feeling of deep gratefulness for his own blessings.
He closed his email to GNN with a quote from the book of Proverbs in the bible:
The soothing tongue is a tree of life; but a perverse one crushes the spirit.
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