DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. -- A Carroll County grandmother did a simple good deed for the holidays, and it came back around to her.
Malinda Rowell is a mild-mannered insurance agent and grandmother from Bremen. She wound up in a skate shop because her grandson, Drew, loves to skateboard.
But at this shop, Zumiez at the Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville, Malinda did one act that touched five lives.
"My parents always taught us that you give when you can," she said. "I just took that as a blessing."
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So when a couple of kids at the store came up to Malinda saying they needed just one more dollar to buy their own shoes, Malinda reached in her purse and pulled out a buck.
"I gave them a dollar, they walked off," Malinda said. "I didn't see them anymore until we got ready to check out."
And that's where they met Ashley Graham, the manager at Zumiez who was touched by Malinda's caring act.
"She didn't have to go out of her way at all to help complete strangers, and she did," the 25-year-old said.
And because Malinda did what she did, Ashley felt the need to do something as well.
"When she gave me my receipt, she had given me her employee discount," Malinda said.
And why? "She helped someone for a reason, I helped her for a reason, and in the future, someone will help me for a reason," Ashley said.
The act that touched two kids and one manager came back to touch Malinda herself. Best of all for her, it touched her grandson, Drew, as well.
"He was with me," she said, "And he saw that doing one small thing to help somebody can come back and bless you."