Random act of kindness by Houston County sheriff’s deputy goes viral on Facebook
PERRY -- When Houston County sheriff’s Sgt. Slate Simons was on his way to work the morning of Aug. 28, he drove by a woman walking along the side of the road.
He turned around and offered her a ride.
As they talked, he learned that his passenger, 22-year-old Ashley Felton of Perry, is as a single mom who lives with her stepfather and mother not far from his own home. She’s raising a 5-year-old girl and doesn’t have a car. She walks to work.
He did the math in his head: She was walking five miles to the McDonald’s restaurant on Perry Parkway, working a full shift and then walking 5 miles home.
As he waved goodbye after dropping her off, Simons said something “tugged on my heartstrings.”
The next thing Simons knew, he was standing inside of a Wal-Mart inquiring about a pink ladies bicycle. The store donated it.
Simons returned to the restaurant and inquired of Felton’s employer if she might be allowed to step outside.
He had a gift for her.
“She gave me a big old hug,” Simons said. “It was a little bit overwhelming.”
* * *
Felton, originally of Montezuma, wasn’t sure what was up when the marked sheriff’s Chevrolet Tahoe turned back around after passing her. She’d been careful not to walk in the road as she made the 45-minute trek to work.
To her surprise, the deputy offered her a ride, and she was glad to take it. Her stepfather drives her to work when he can, but their work schedules often don’t mesh.
She and her family had recently moved from an apartment complex that had been only a 15-minute walk to work. Now the walk took three times as long.
Felton chit-chatted with the deputy as he drove, and she thanked him again as he dropped her off.
The deputy surprised her a second time later in the day when he showed up with the bicycle.
“I didn’t know what to say,” Felton said. “I was completely speechless.”
When she finished work, she rode the bike home. The trip home took all of 15 minutes, and she said she took her time and enjoyed the ride.
“I was so happy to ride home on the bike,” Felton said. “That was really a big blessing to me.”
* * *
Simons posted a photo of himself and Felton with the bicycle taken outside of McDonald’s on his Facebook page.
The encounter touched him, and he wanted to share the experience with friends. He had not idea the post would go viral.
“I didn’t do this to get any attention,” Simons said. “I didn’t do anything that I wouldn’t want someone to do for a member of my family.
“If it wasn’t for God, I wouldn’t have been in the right place at the right time,” he said.
* * *
Felton didn’t know the deputy had posted the photo on Facebook until she started hearing from relatives.
“They were just cheering about it,” she said.
She went home to Montezuma recently for her grandmother’s 80th birthday and went to a grocery store there.
“People just started coming up to me and asking me how I liked the bike,” said Felton, who was amazed so many people had seen the Facebook post.
She’d like to thank the deputy for his kindness, and she wanted to thank a woman she’d never before met who had given her a ride on a different day. She doesn’t know the woman’s name.
Felton said she’s a bit awed by the deputy’s actions.
“That was my first time anything like that happened to me,” she said.
To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559, or follow her on Twitter @becpurser.
This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Random act of kindness by Houston County sheriff’s deputy goes viral on Facebook ."