I was 23, broke, and had just split from my ex. He had taken all our furniture except the bed. I scrounged two folding chairs. One of my neighbors, Bill, asked me to watch his cat for a week while he and his fiancée looked at houses out of town. I agreed, and when he looked inside the apartment to drop off the cat, he just frowned at me. At the time I was totally embarrassed but it was better to sit on the floor than have the ex.

Anyway, fast-forward a month, and my neighbor was moving. He came over and asked me if I could help him one last time before they moved. I went over to his apartment and his fiancée is there; she just kept smiling at me. He asked me to help him move some light furniture before the moving company gets there. His fiancée giggled. Let me tell you it was gorgeous and expensive furniture.

Starting with the coffee table, we moved it out and he told me to follow him. He walked to my apartment and put it in the middle of my living room and told me it looked great, then walked back to his apartment. I was floored and told him I couldn’t possibly accept it for free. He asked how much change I had in my pocket. Then he sold me all the furniture for $0.53. I mean everything, even decorations. In the end he told me he did not want to pay a mover thousands of dollars to move it and told me someone had once offered him a helping hand when he was young and broke. Meanwhile, as we finish, his fiancée just giggled and laughed. I still have that coffee table 30 years later.