'Pay it forward' Russian-style: Single mom raises $25k for a boy who'd bought her bus ticket just to help

A truly inspirational Christmas story unfolded in a small town in Russia’s Altai region, after a boy bought a bus ticket for a single mom struggling with a crying child. That mother, it turned out, is a popular Instagram blogger.

The heart-warming story was told by the blogger Natalya Mishina herself. Apart from raising a three-year-old boy on her own, the young woman is a columnist with a fashion mag and an Instagram blogger, who boasts a vast army of over 600,000 subscribers.

During the New Year holiday week, Mishina, who resides in St. Petersburg, visited her parents in the small town of Kamen-na-Obi, located in Russia’s Altai region. Out there, she took a bus – and as her child began to cry, she struggled to buy a ticket. As she was about to do so, she found out a local 13-year-old boy has already bought her one.

The blogger was unable to learn much about the Good Samaritan teen, except that his name is Ivan, what school he has been studying at and that his mom has been single since his father died. The boy then had to leave the bus, leaving Mishina wondering how to find him to repay his kindness.

Fortunately, the town of Kamen-na-Obi is a small one – it has less than 50,000 residents – and it turned out to be not that hard to find the considerate boy. Mishina made contact with the school he mentioned – and shortly after she was knocking on the door of the boy’s house. She met Ivan’s mom – Tatiana – who turned out to be kind and loving woman, whose caring personality was not affected by all the hardships she’d encountered in her life.

Mishina learned that the family – unsurprisingly – was struggling financially, and that Ivan had recently dropped out of an art school, since their house needed repairs and the family was not able to afford both endeavors. Moved by the boy’s kindness and his family’s story, the blogger called upon her followers to try and help, urging them to send money directly to the struggling family.

The outcome of her appeal turned out to be very impressive – over 1.5 million rubles (some $25,000) was raised in less than in a day. The flood of donations overwhelming both Tatiana and her son.

“Mom, what have I done? I’ve only bought a ticket for a young woman and her kid,” he told Tatiana.

Now, the family will be able to afford not only the art school and house repairs – Ivan’s mom is thinking about purchasing an apartment in a big city for her boy, who’d simply helped a stranger in need.

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