A husband and wife yesterday thanked a stranger who picked up their supermarket bill in a random act of kindness.Diane and Stacey Simpson said they were “incredibly grateful” to the woman they knew only as “Karen”, who paid their $130 shopping bill. The woman stepped in after Mr Simpson, 59, an essential worker based at the landfill site near the airport, stopped off at the Shelly Bay MarketPlace last week on his way home from work.Mr Simpson said he met the mystery woman while they waited in the checkout queue at the Hamilton Parish supermarket.He added: “I told her she could go ahead of me, but she insisted that I go ahead of her. I said ‘I don’t mind’, so I went ahead of her. I proceeded to put my groceries on the conveyor belt, but when I went to pay for them she insisted on paying for me.”Mr Simpson said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was speechless at first, but then I couldn’t stop thanking her. I could have paid for them, but she insisted that she pay for them for me.”Mr Simpson, from Hamilton Parish, said that he waited outside the supermarket and thanked the woman again.He added that the woman had noticed he was an essential worker, but that she had not acted because of that.Mr Simpson said: “She had told me that something had come over her and she just felt that she needed to do a good deed.”His wife said she cried “tears of joy” when her husband phoned her to tell her the news.Mrs Simpson, 56, added: “He called me and he said to me and said ‘you’ll never guess what happened’.“He said that a lady just paid for our groceries and I just started bawling my eyes out. I was speechless.”Mrs Simpson added she was so moved by the woman’s generosity she posted details of the encounter on her Facebook page earlier this week.She said: “With everything that Bermuda’s going through and what the world’s going through, this lady, who doesn’t know my husband from Adam, did this generous, kind, thoughtful thing out of the goodness of her heart.“I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude for what she did.”Mrs Simpson explained: “I thought ‘you know what? I need to show the people of Bermuda how Bermudians stick together when we’re in a crisis’.“I’m just hoping that she saw it and she realised how much we’re both grateful for her kindness and generosity.”Mrs Simpson said: “It’s people like her that give Bermuda a good name.“It’s not that we couldn’t afford our groceries, Stacey had the money but, out of the kindness of her heart, she just went ahead and did it for no reason.”Mr Simpson admitted that he did not remember the woman’s full name, but that he and his wife were grateful for her kindness.Mrs Simpson added: “I’m hoping that one day, when this mess is over, my husband and I will be shopping at Shelly Bay MarketPlace, which we normally do, and, if she’s there, that Stacey recognises her and I can give her a hug and thank her again from the bottom of my heart.”