CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It was late evening on Feb. 15 when Felisha Coyner and her 13-year-old daughter, Morgan, stopped by the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Teays Valley and saw what appeared to be a homeless man standing at the counter.

He was middle-aged and dirty, weighed down with bags and backpacks. A young female employee, Francesca Chambers, was waiting on him. As mother and daughter approached, they could hear bits of the conversation.

"It's OK," Francesca was telling the man. "Keep your money. I'm getting this. What kind of chicken do you like?"

The man was shaking his head no, but the attractive, young KFC employee was insistent.

"It seemed as if they had been talking for a while," Coyner wrote in her email. "She was telling the man that everyone goes through tough times, but he shouldn't give up. He should keep on fighting."

The man was kind of mumbling, his head held low.

"Do you need help getting a roof over your head? Maybe a job?" Francesca asked him. "If you come back tomorrow, I'll help you get in touch with a shelter. And if you need money, I can probably come up with $20."

The man was trying to get her to take his $2, but she put the money back in his hand.

"Look," said the girl. "I'm in school full time, and, trust me, there are times I don't feel like going to class or coming to work, but I make myself do it, and so can you."

The man realized someone was standing behind him, and when he turned to look at the Coyners, there were tears running down his cheeks.

"I don't even know this girl," the man told them. "And yet, she's trying to help someone like me."

The man was trembling hard as he told them how he hadn't known his father had died until he was already buried. He said his dad had been trying for years to get him off the streets.

"Then let's honor your dad by doing it now," Francesca told him. "You come back tomorrow and I'll do what I can to help you get back on your feet."

After the man left with his food, Coyner and her daughter stepped up to the counter.

"If your parents knew what you just did," Coyner told Francesca, "they'd be so proud of you right now."

That's when Francesca started crying.

"She told us her mother had died not even a year ago," Coyner wrote. "She told me I'd just made her day by saying that."

When I called Francesca to talk about what happened at KFC that day, she told me her mother had instilled in her a desire to help others. It had been important to her.

Francesca, an only child, was still in high school when she found her mom's body the day before Mother's Day in 2010. The death was ruled accidental. Francesca lived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the time. She is now a student at West Virginia State University majoring in elementary education.

Although the man never returned to the restaurant, Francesca had been prepared to do what she could to help him.

"You never know what someone has gone through," she said. "Everyone has a story. We all have something we're trying to survive."

Just because the man wasn't ready to be helped doesn't lessen what Francesca attempted to do that night.

"The example she set for my daughter -- and for me -- that day changed us," wrote Coyner. "It brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. As long as I live, I will never forget that night. It wasn't about the food she gave him, or the money she offered him. It was her compassion for a total stranger, the decency she showed another human being, regardless of how dirty he was."

Charity sees the need, not the cause.

Far too often, we underestimate the power of a kind word or a small act of caring.

Both of which have the potential to change a life.

Reach Karin Fuller at karinful...@gmail.com.