Don't worry, Ginger: We won't forget.

I tend to think that coffee is a magical substance that prevents me and a few million others from turning into raging, homicidal, beasts first thing in the morning. At the same time, you're not going to find magic while standing in line at a Starbucks. It's just a rather matter-of-fact endeavor. You stand in line, you get your coffee, and you leave. Except this past Thursday, on a random splurge to go get some coffee and a sandwich before work, magic did happen in our local Starbucks.

It started with appeared to be just a simple random act of kindness. The lady in line before us, whose named we learned was Ginger, wanted to buy our coffees. You have that thought of, wow, I feel really lucky today, I don't have to pay the $6 or $7 bucks today, but there was more to the story. Today would have been her grandson, Seth Asher's, first birthday. Being unable to buy birthday gifts, she wanted to give gifts to other people.

Seth died on his second day of life, overseas, where Ginger never had the chance to meet him in person. She asked us to do something nice for someone else today, to pay it forward, on her grandson's birthday and that is what we intended to do. However, if more people know, the more people can remember this child who was lost, hence this blog post.

John and I both hugged Ginger before she left the tiny little Starbucks as she tried not to cry. We never told her that we both work at a funeral home and that we understood viscerally the pain of loss that people go through when the worst happens. We only told her that we wouldn't forget and that we would pay it forward.

And we're asking you all to do the same, today. Go. Pay for some coffee or some groceries for the person behind you in line. Help a neighbor or a stranger or anyone and tell them about Seth. Let his birthday be an amazing day of paying it forward.