THE GIFT OF KINDNESS
It’s the season of giving, but there’s one thing we can give all year long
WHEN SHE WAS A CHILD, MY MOTHER WAS TOLD TO AVOID AN ECCENTRIC LONER.
Decades later, then a senior herself, she learned he was aging alone in a nursing home.
Knowing he had few family or friends, she decided to visit.
Staff were puzzled. No one ever asked for him. They directed her to his room.
Upon seeing her, he reached out and touched Mom’s nose, checking to see if she was real.
It’s one of many acts of kindness my mother has committed over the years.
She’s my hero.
During 2019, SaltWire newspapers have reported on numerous heroes and their acts of kindness; people who put others before self, are motivated by helping and know the power of giving.
It’s the right season to celebrate them and hopefully inspire more of us to simply be kind.
Whether people are experiencing hard times or are just caught up in today’s hectic pace, kindness can make a difference.
OVER THE ROOF
Every day, Jeremy Locke passed Jeanette MacDonald’s house when he was out picking up his roofing company’s crew.
The 25-year-old Glace Bay man had long noticed the state of her roof.
“She’s had a blue tarp nailed on it for a few years,” he told journalist Sharon Montgomery-Dupe. “Some parts are open to the elements.”
Locke saw MacDonald outside with her grandkids and assumed they lived with her.
“We felt they should have a dry home to live in, especially with winter coming.”
So, he knocked on her door and asked if she’d like to enter a raffle for a new roof.
MacDonald agreed, unaware hers would be the only ticket.
Her roof was repaired a few days later.
The Cape Breton Post’s coverage of the raffle trick and the condition of MacDonald’s house led to a groundswell of kindness.
Donations included a heat pump, wood stove, chimney, doors, flooring and new beds.
“It’s awesome how many people out there want to help,” MacDonald said emotionally.
Imagine how receiving that must feel.
‘I’M THANKFUL SHE WAS THERE’
Sometimes, that willingness to help involves supporting strangers in an emergency.
That’s what Charlottetown’s Justyn Caldwell did one evening this past April.
Eight-month-old Archer was making unusual sounds as his parents, Cody McEachern and Corinne McQuillan, drove home from shopping.
“He was blue to the face, his eyes were rolling to the back of his head, and I just remember yelling, ‘Oh my God!’ and jumping out of the car as fast as I could,” McEachern told former Guardian journalist Katherine Hunt. Archer was unresponsive and having a seizure. Suddenly, a woman who had just gotten off the bus ran towards them and took control.
“She picked him up, started smacking him on the back and eventually he coughed and started crying and started to come around,” MacEachern said.
Not long after, paramedics arrived.
“I’m so thankful she was there because I had no idea what was going on. I thought he was gone,” McEachern said. The hero left before anyone got her name.
A Facebook post about the ordeal eventually identified Caldwell — a preschool teacher who keeps her CPR and First Aid updated — as the Good Samaritan. “Knowing he’s home and OK and doing great makes me really happy,” the Charlottetown resident said.
Her experience shows the rewards of compassion (and First Aid).
‘SHE WAS SHAKING TWO HOURS LATER’
Jessica King was speechless after an act of kindness last Christmas.
Her boyfriend Ryan MacFarlane gave her the “most significant gift” she’s ever received — adoption papers. It meant she would legally join the foster family that had raised her since she was six-months-old.
After the initial shock, the then 30-year-old cried. “No words can describe it,” she told Telegram journalist Rosie Mullaley last January.
MacFarlane’s considerate (and considerable) efforts included getting the foster father’s approval and navigating the legal process.
“The way she broke down, I saw 30 years of pain finally being released,” MacFarlane said. “It had been burdening her and holding her down her whole life…She was shaking two hours later…I have never seen her, or anyone, so happy in all my life.”
‘I DON’T DESERVE THIS’
For Joni Rutledge, home was a 2010 Pontiac G5 in a Walmart parking lot when John DeMont wrote a December column about her for The Chronicle Herald. She’d ended up living in the car after a series of losses — her job, her apartment and three toes to diabetes.
Before finding herself there, the 63-year-old had spent eight years caring for her mother, a niece with special needs, and her brother, who had cancer and required palliative care.
The kindness of strangers — and people from her past — came through for her after DeMont’s column appeared. People showed up at Rutledge’s Pontiac with food, money, blankets, clothing and all kinds of offers of warm places to stay, including one from a student who offered his apartment during the holidays.
A GoFundMe page, set up by former co-worker Evan Langford, had raised $8,217 as of Dec. 22.
“A big part of me feels that I don’t deserve this,” Rutledge said when DeMont followed up with her.
•••
But Rutledge was deserving of kindness.
We all are.
And we can all give it, too.
It’s free, and its rewards can be lifechanging. People might even touch you to see if you’re real.