Businessman Pulled Away This Older Man’s Chair At A Restaurant And Learned A Life Lesson

Clarence Purvis, a 90+-year-old gentleman, eats lunch daily with a picture of his late wife, and when he was asked why, everyone had to hold back their tears. It was lunchtime in a small-town diner in Georgia, USA.

A tall man in a suit rushed through the door, talking on his cell phone. His name was Travis Howard, and he seemed to be desperately looking for a table, but the place was at maximum capacity, and all the chairs appeared to be occupied.

He only found one empty chair across the table from a man who seemed to be over 90 years old. He was having lunch alone but, for some reason, had two chairs at his table.

The man in the suit decided to wait a few minutes, but time passed, and nobody seemed to be with the older man. So, without saying anything, he took the empty chair from the table and carried it to the counter to sit down and have his meal.

The older man got up and asked why he had taken his chair without asking permission.

The young man just looked up and laughed slightly:

“Why should I have to ask you for an unused chair, sir? It was empty, and you were clearly eating your lunch alone.”

The elder looked the man firmly in the eye and said he was not alone but accompanied by his wife, pointing to the picture frame on the table. There were two pictures in the picture frame, one in black and white of a young woman and a more recent one, in color, of an older lady.

Travis Howard felt confused and didn’t exactly understand what was going on. Even though he was in a hurry, he gave the chair back to the older man because a family at a nearby table had just left, leaving four other chairs vacant.

He sat back down and kept trying to figure out what was going on as he watched the man eat his lunch with a picture frame. Eventually, the older man noticed the younger man’s stares and motioned for him to come closer.

As he approached, the old man said:

“Are you lost or just curious? I see that you keep staring at me, so please, take your chair and sit with us.”

The man was so curious that he forgot he was late for a meeting. He sat at the table with the man and his pictures, not knowing that he would soon be struggling to hold back tears from the story he was about to hear.

The Girl with the Broken Heel

In 1948, 17-year-old Clarence Purvis was stepping out for his weekly visit to the barbershop. It seemed to be a day like any other—Clarence would do errands in the morning and work in the shoe shop with his father in the afternoon.

But he had an odd feeling that this day would be a very special one. Satisfied with his haircut, he left the barber shop and headed to work.

It would be an outrage for him to go out in public without his hair cut and styled perfectly. The young man was anxious to get home because his mother was preparing his favorite meal for dinner, chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy.

So, fifteen minutes before the hour, he took advantage of the fact that his father had gone home early and decided to start closing the shop. However, the door chime rang, indicating a new customer was entering the store.

With his back still turned, Clarence said:

“Sorry, we are closing now. Come back tomorrow…”

But when he turned around, he saw an amazingly beautiful young woman who appeared to be about his age and whom he had never seen before. Clarence was so enchanted by her beauty that he couldn’t even find the words.

“Good afternoon. I wonder if you could make an exception? I have a ball to go to tomorrow, but my heel just broke,”

explained the young woman.

Clarence promptly replied that he would make an exception and help her. She laughed, handed him the heels, and said she would be back for them at 10 o’clock the following day.

The young man agreed, and his plans to close the store early were soon forgotten. The moment the woman walked out the door, he began to adjust her shoes, working hard to make them look as beautiful as possible.

Clarence thought about how he could try to impress her the next day.

“Where is this dance she’s going to tomorrow?”

he thought.

When he got home and sat at the dinner table with his parents, he was filled with a unique energy that everyone noted.

His mother asked:

“That excited look on your face can’t just be for the food. Tell me, Clarence, what’s the real reason for that silly smile?”

The young man said he had met the woman he was going to marry. His parents just laughed, remembering their heady, youthful days, and continued enjoying the pleasant dinner.

The next day, the young man arrived at the shoe store before his father. He had put on his best clothes and was anxious to meet the girl with the high heels again.

The young man realized that he had been so nervous the day before that he had not even asked her name. Suddenly, the chime at the store’s entrance rang, and Clarence, who was in the back, ran to answer it.