Strangers go the extra mile to return memories
Erlinda Tan’s faith in the inherent goodness of people has been restored by an act of diligence and kindness.
The Edmonton woman, who was moving to Vancouver after being laid off in the energy sector, was having all her earthly belongings trucked to the west coast April 29 with the help of a couple of friends when they noticed that one box had fallen off the truck.
Thinking it contained only hangers and plastic kitchenware, it wasn’t until they arrived in Vancouver that they realized the box contained a wealth of personal items. It included many sentimental items, including her Bible of 25 years and her father’s 50-year-old scrapbook, which contained a compilation of pictures of the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy, whom her dad idolized. Her father died when Tan was just seven, so the scrapbook was a connection with him that she hadn’t had through most of her life.
Although the box didn’t contain her name or telephone number, just two weeks after settling in Vancouver, Tan received an email from a stranger saying she’d found the box and all its contents.
“I didn’t expect it,” said Tan in an interview. “I was speechless for about a minute and I’m so grateful. They went the extra mile to look for me.”
Tan wrote an open letter of gratitude, entitled Kindness From A Stranger, to Susan and Russel Kolasa of Edson, Alta, who found her possessions.
“(Susan) opened my Bible and found my name, Dolly Tan (her nickname), there. She searched on Facebook and found me. She emailed right the next day,” said Tan.
“However, I didn’t get the mail as it went to one of the hidden inboxes. She didn’t get a reply but she didn’t give up. She kept searching for clues to reach me (and) saw some of my public posts in Facebook. In those articles, she noticed that I used the name Erlinda Tan. She searched Facebook again using that name (and) found the account. She was certain Dolly and Erlinda are one and the same person because the profile photos were the same. ... Call it fate or answered prayer, this time the letter went to my visible inbox. That’s how we connected.”
Tan said the Kolasas could have chosen to ignore the box entirely.
“But they didn’t. When they couldn’t reach me, they didn’t give up. If there’s a word I could call them, I want to call them giants,” she said. “Giants of kindness. Doing something noble for a stranger, when no one is watching, is just priceless.”