Strangers pick up Iowa family's $211 Wal-Mart bill

One Iowa family's good deed is the stuff Hallmark movies are made of -- the kind of story that'll get you through any post-Christmas blues. Ruby Modlin was about to purchase some holiday food with her husband and grandkids at an Altoona, Iowa Wal-Mart last Friday when a kind-hearted stranger stepped in with his credit card.

Modlin explained that she thought she recognized the man from high school, until he came over paid her $211 bill. Via KCCI-TV Des Moines:

"I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘I’m paying for this.’ I said, ‘No, you’re not.’ He said, 'Yes, I am,’” Modlin said.

The man paid, and then handed her the receipt for $211, saying, “Merry Christmas!”

“He said, ‘That’s my daughter and wife over there. We just wanted to come out and do something nice for somebody, and we picked you guys,’” Modlin said.

Awaiting a liver transplant for 18 months, Modlin has been in and out of the hospital with liver failure. Her husband, Ray, called the anonymous family "angels of Christmas."

"They're just sent from heaven. There's no amount of words that can thank people like that," he said.