There still are good people in this world, and some are in the giving spirit this holiday season – at least that’s what two local ladies found out recently.

Sisters Nell Riley and Nita Fain of Andalusia, both legally blind, said a total stranger became their Christmas angel during a recent retail excursion.

“We were at the Dollar Tree,” she said. “Nita’s husband, Herbert, helped us get into the store. We were looking for poinsettias to go on our parents’ graves. One of the clerks took us to the poinsettias.

“When we were finished, my sister asked her husband if he would take us to the car before he made the purchases,” she said. “We left the poinsettias at the counter. When he went back to pay for them, the clerk told him that a lady ahead of him paid for our flowers.”

Riley said something like that had never happened to them before.

“It just touched me,” she said. “I have no idea who the lady was, but she is an angel. It’s so nice to know that nice people are around here. I would love to thank her for her generosity. She didn’t have to do that, but we really do appreciate it.

“I’m sure there are others who have been helped this season, too,” she said.

Nationwide there have been reports of generous people paying off layaways and other things in the spirit of giving.