On a crowded 3 train in Times Square during peak rush hour, Kay Brown took notice of a ideal stranger, a homeless woman whose tired journey one could only imagine.
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“I asked her what her shoe size was and she said, ‘Size 7, ‘ which is my size, so I said, ‘Please take my shoes, ‘” Brown told TODAY.com. She responded, “Size 7” – the same size as Brown.
“Something in me, it’s just being a human you know, I had to reach out to her”, Brown said, adding that the woman asked her if she was sure she wanted to part with the shoes.
Without a second thought, Brown took off her tan suede boots and handed them to the speechless woman. “She was beyond thankful”.
With almost 60,000 homeless people living in the city, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, a person in need is not an unusual sight.
This act of kindness wasn’t Brown’s first.
She shared photos on Facebook and explained, “You see, I can buy another pair of shoes tomorrow…”
“You see the subway each day and you see how gross it is”. When subway riders realized what she was doing, they started to chime in. She says she’d do it all again. Numerous news outlets have carried her story as well.
Brown admitted it was the one day she should have worn matching socks and thanked the “sweet guy” who gave her the thick Nike socks after hearing what she had done saying “they helped a ton!”
“He said ‘do you want an extra pair of socks?” “It helped so much”.
So I stood on the subway for 15 minutes 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.
Despite the odd looks and comments, Brown – who has been on the board of a non profit charity called Fly for MS for years – was satisfied.
Quietly and discreetly Brown says she approached the woman and offered the shoes off her own feet, which happened to be a flawless match!
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In another act of kindness, a passenger on the train gave Brown an unworn pair of socks he had in his gym bag to wear home.
