Ishmael Gilbert woke up Thursday to learn a picture of him at work a few days before had been shared on Facebook more than 13,000 times.
"I was asleep at home and everyone was texting me, 'check Facebook, check Facebook,'" said the 19-year-old cashier at Glendale Target.
In fact, Gilbert didn't even know anyone had taken the photo or posted it. He thought he was just helping out an elderly customer at his register, who, when it came time to pay, revealed that she'd be paying in coins.
"She was all worked up because the line was getting longer and she was moving so slow," he said. "She was shaking."
Without thinking twice, Gilbert helped the woman count the change for her order as some customers in his line left to pursue a shorter one. But Sarah Owen Bigler stayed, and her daughter turned her attention to Gilbert, asking him about the change he was counting.
Bigler recounted the experience in her Facebook post:
"I realized I hadn't been inconvenienced at all," she wrote. "That my daughter was instead witnessing kindness and patience and being taught this valuable lesson by a complete stranger; furthermore, I realized that I too needed a refresher on this lesson."
No one, least of all Gilbert, expected the post to explode as virally as it has. He watched it grow from a couple hundred shares to several thousand — with no signs of slowing.
"I never thought it'd blow up this big," he said. "Her post, I guessed it touched a lot of people."
Read Bigler's full post:
Oddly enough, Gilbert had been working at Target for just a few days when he met the elderly customer, Bigler and her daughter. He said Bigler came back into the Target on Friday to meet with media. He hugged her daughter and thanked her.
"It just feels good to be recognized for good work," he said. "But this isn't something new. I treat all customers the same, the way I want to be treated."
The impact on this customer's daughter watching him patiently count change wasn't lost him — his own daughter, Namya, just turned 1.
"It felt like a daddy-and-daughter moment a little. She asked, 'what's that?' 'I said that's a penny,'" he said. "It felt good because that's the kind of example I want to be for my daughter."
His overnight fame isn't an exaggeration — Gilbert said he's been recognized and people have even tried to give him money or job offers. For now, he's going to stay where he is, and Glendale Target Store Team Leader Todd Davis said his actions the past week will help his career there.
"Very rarely you get the opportunity to talk about something that's a positive impact in the community," he said.
"You never know who's watching."
