I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mother in a house dress; lawn mower in his hand, and dish-towel in hers.. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress.

Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer’s night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away…never to return.

So… While we have it…. it’s best we love it… And care for it…. And fix it when it’s broken….. And heal it when it’s sick.

This is true… For marriage…. And old cars…. And children with bad report cards….. Dogs and cats with bad hips….

And aging parents…. And grandparents.

We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special…. And so, we keep them close!

I received this from someone who thinks I am a ‘keeper’, so I’ve sent it to the people I think of in the same way…

Now it’s your turn to send this to those people that are ‘keepers’ in your life.

Send it back to the person that sent it to you if they too are a keeper. Good friends are like stars…. You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there. Blessings to you today and always!

<

With love…MamaRed

Stella Patrick

I checked to be sure it was a lady – and I stopped and offered her a lift. Turned out she didn’t live very much further down the road from me and was ever so grateful for the ride on a bitter cold day. It was a small but easy thing to do – something I’d hope someone might do for me if I had to walk on a cold day carrying a heavy bag.

As it turned out I had the opportunity to do this again the next week for another woman. She, too was very grateful and we had a nice chat for the 5 minutes I had her in the car. Both these ladies lived fairly near to me, so they were, in truth my neighbors and I was glad I could help them out.

I think too often we are afraid to do little things like this, but the times that I have, it’s turned out to be a good thing and I’m happy I reached out.

Pam

I noticed the guy behind me only had one item – little Debbie oatmeal pies – it took me several moments (I was quite tired) for it to dawn on me to let him go ahead of me – he only had one thing after all. I told him cheerfully to go ahead – and he was quite surprised and hesitant. I assured him it was fine – he only had the one thing – I didn’t mind.

He thanked me several times and was obviously pleasantly surprised to have such a kindness done. He had an accent and I assume he may have been originally from another country. He was very polite and pleasant and very appreciative. It made me feel good to do such a small thing that made his day a little better.

Pam

One day, I called on someone regarding their past due payments. The man who answered the phone was obviously upset and very distressed. After identifying myself, I asked him if he was OK.

Mr. Jones honestly said,

“No. I am not OK. I just came in from the hospital to change clothes and grab a bite to eat. My wife is still there and will take her turn at home when I get back to the hospital. My son fell off a slide at school earlier this week and it was several hours later when the school finally notified us. The doctors performed one surgery, but now his brain is swelling out of the cranium and the doctors don’t know whether he will survive, and if he does how badly brain damaged he will be.”

Now remember, I worked in collections. My ONLY job was to call and find out when payment would be made. However, once I heard that story, I could not bring myself to ask for payment. It was the furthest thing from the mind of Mr. Jones, and I just wasn’t going there. Instead, I began asking questions that were really none of my business.

Sally: “Do you attend church anywhere?”

Mr. Jones: “Yes, but I haven’t gone for a long time. We have been having some financial difficulties and have not been able to tithe as much as we should. I feel embarrassed that I can’t pay my tithe, so I don’t go. I feel unwelcome when I can’t pay tithe and offering.

Sally: “What is the name of the church?”

Mr. Jones: “The church is _____ located in _________ California.

Sally: “OK. Well, listen, you go take care of your son.. I am going on vacation starting when I get off work today. I will check in with you when I return. In the meantime, I will put your record out of the call cue so that no one will bother you for the next two weeks. I pray that your son has a miracle healing
and gets well soon.

Mr. Jones choked out “Thanks” and hung up.

Once I had hung up the telephone, I called directory assistance, obtained the number for the chruch, then called the church.

Sally: “Hello, my name is Sally. I was just talking with one of your members, Mr. Jones. Do you know that family?”

Receptionist: “Yes, but we have not seen them for awhile.”

Sally: “Well, that family is having a really hard time financially just now and Mr. Jones feels embarrassed that he cannot pay tithe so stays away from church. But that is not the reason I called. The Jones family desperately needs their church just now. You see, his son had an accident, has had brain surgery and is not expected
to live and if he should live, is expected to be severely brain damaged. He is at the hospital. The mother is there now. Can you get the pastor over there right away?

The receptionist agreed to tell the pastor of the urgent need of the family and we rang off.

I then called the Unity church that I attended, and requested prayer for the child. Then having done all I could do, I closed out my day and went on vacation, hoping and praying the child would be OK.

When I returned two weeks later, I was called into the Department Manager’s office. I went, wondering what I could possibly have done wrong during two weeks of vacation.

She sat behind her desk with a stern look on her face. She had a file folder on her desk with some hand written notes. She asked if I remembered Mr. Jones. When I said that I did, she handed a folded note to me, then picked up another and read from it.

Basically, it told her what Mr. Jones knew of my efforts on his behalf. (He did not know about the call to Unity – which also initiated a second prayer chain.) The pastor had shown up at hospital shortly after Mr. Jones and I had hung up. Mr. Jones wondered how Pastor knew he was needed. Pastor could only tell that someone named Sally had called and given his receptionist what for about the Jones family situation, but had refused to provide any other details about herself than her name.

Pastor had dropped everything and rushed straight to the hospital. Mr. Jones, remembering that he gave me all those details that he was just too upset to refuse, understood, and knew exactly who had made the call.

The receptionist, in the meantime, had called other church members and explained the urgent need for prayer. They had called others. It seems, a prayer chain went around the world for this child. Apparently, the church was very organized and had a call tree for just such emergencies.

Johnny did not need the second surgery. The swelling went down, he had healed and there was no known brain damage at that time. He was up and walking and talking and reading and wanting to go back to school.

There were other miracles: The church offered to help with any medical bills not covered by insurance. They paid for an attorney to step in and get the school to also provide assistance.. (The surgeon felt the school was somewhat responsible for the severity of the damage because they had not notified the parents for several hours after the accident.) The surgeon discounted his fees. The church offered assistance to help the family get their financial situation back under control. The mortgage payments were current when I looked at his record later that day.

These details were in the note Mr. Jones sent to my department manager. These were what he had told my Manager. There was also a note from the Pastor saying thanks for the call. And a note from the surgeon saying that the healing was definitely a miracle. He (the surgeon) believed in the power of prayer and the family had resisted his requests to call their church.

The note to me just said

Sally, Thanks for your caring & compassionate soul. Your call to our pastor probably saved my son’s life. I am grateful that you cared enough to make the call that I could not bring myself to make. We now attend services every time the doors are open and announce our gratitude to all who come into our sphere of influence. Thank you for opening the door for our return to God. I have sent a note of explanation and thanks to your boss. I hope that was OK. Thank you for sticking your neck out on our behalf. We will never forget the service you provided to our family.

In Gratitude
The Jones Family

The manager then sternly addressed the matter of my getting personally involved with a client. I simply said to her: “Sorry you are upset with what I did. It was done spontaneously out of the need of the moment. Being who I am, I could have done no less. I will probably do it again when the need arises.”

LAUGH.

I was simply way too good at my job for her to threaten any disciplinary action if I ever did it again. . She made lots of bonus dollars because I nearly always met the goals she set each quarter. Probably more than enough to make her house payments for the whole quarter.

And I DID do it again – many times over the intervening years between the Jones family incident, and the end of my service in that position. When the needs of the families in distress outweighed my need to collect their mortgage payments, I made calls on their behalf – to churches, other family members, local charities – wherever I was guided to ask for help for the family, I did. Usually with excellent results for the families involved and my employer, too.

I didn’t intervene lightly. Only when my insistent intuition would not leave me be and I had to “do something” in order to get it to quiet, would I ever intervene. Then I would pray and ask for guidance, which I always felt I received, fully.

Moral: You never know how far-reaching a single act of kindness will be.

Sally

Note: The names have been changed to protect the privacy of all involved.

Around Valentine’s Day my daughter and I were in the local Wal Mart when I noticed a little elderly man. He was alone and was taking his time. I noticed he had very little in his cart. I felt that the Holy Spirit was pressing on my heart that this man just needed someone to “see” him. I began to pray as to what I should do. I bought
a Valentine’s Day card and put in some money.

I had my eight year old daughter deliver the card.

The look on that man’s face, wow! it still brings tears to my eyes. I wondered when was the last time that someone “saw” him.

Anonymous

Pam, USA

On the second day I was wondering through the city when I came upon a homeless man with a worn paper cup in his hands. Its not like this is the first beggar that I’ve seen in Europe. Florence is filled with plenty of gypsy women begging for money, but this guy was different. He couldn’t have been any older than myself (22), and he truly looked down on his luck.

Earlier in the day I had snagged some extra food from the hostel where I’m staying so I could hold myself over for dinner. One of the things i had grabbed was a small apple. I myself have a very limited budget, but i felt that this young man could use this more than i could. I went up to him and offered him the apple. I think that after watching 100′s of people pass by not even glancing at him, he was amazed that i was even talking to him, let alone giving him something. He took the apple and
gave me a big smile… then i just walked away. Once i was a distance away i turned around and saw him just staring at it, smiling ear to ear. Then he devoured that apple quicker than id ever seen anyone eat anything before.

I felt very happy with myself to give this man a small ray of kindness, hoping one day that if id ever be in a similar situation that someone would be my angel…

Amber
Pennsylvania USA (by way of Florence, Italty)

This summer his class mate ended up in hospital, he’s been there for two months now and has to stay a month or more. He got a bad staphylococcal infection, then a heart operation when he was born and something wrong with his heart now, expecting an operation soon and simply, well poor boy. My son spends every free minute in hospital, which is nearby. He even wanted to lend him his laptop and mobile internet access usb-stick so they can talk through skype. The boy’s parents then organized something.

We have at least one more month to go, and my son still is not tired of visiting the hospital after school, bringing over the homework, helping with the same and chatting later.

Usually such enthusiasm weakens after two three weeks.

Lucky friends!

Anita
Croatia

I called his sister and told her about the mysterious phone call I had just received. It sounded as if my son had experienced some sort of head injury and I feared for his safety.

My daughter immediately called the Erie bus terminal and spoke to a man named Dave Hughes, a ticket agent for Greyhound. He said yes, a young man fitting my son’s description was there and told my daughter not to worry, that he would do everything he could to help him. Dave Hughes turned out to be an Easter miracle for our family.

My son had arrived with his belongings in disarray and Dave helped him pack it all in boxes, suitable for transport. Dave also spent time talking to my son, trying to find out what had happened, trying to keep him centered and calm until the arrival of the Missouri-bound bus.

Three hours later, Dave helped my son load all of his belongings, then spoke to the bus driver about the situation. The bus driver was the second miracle in this chain of events. He monitored my son’s transfer to a second bus in eastern Ohio, where he spoke to the next bus driver who monitored my son’s transfer to a third bus in
western Ohio. Each driver made sure that all of my son’s belongings were transferred with him.

My son arrived safely in St. Louis yesterday afternoon. He is currently receiving medical care but it is too early to tell what caused his disorientation. The tests will take time. Throughout this ordeal, David in Erie, Pennsylvania, kept in touch with my daughter in Missouri. His compassion and kindness touched the hearts of my family all across the country. The three drivers completed this series of miracles that forever changed our lives.

I cannot afford the trip to Missouri to be with my son during this ordeal, but I want the Greyhound Corporation to know that these men went far beyond the company’s call for courtesy and professionalism. I believe in my heart that they were responsible for saving my son’s life and for that they will always be in my heart and in my prayers.

Signed,

Bobby Jean Simkins
United States Navy Veteran

Incident occurred in Spring 2000. I immediately posted it on Heartwarmers and received thousands–THOUSANDS of emails, most of which offered money to travel and help my son. I did not accept any money (I’m stubborn like that) but responded to every email with my heartfelt thanks and prayers. I still have those emails, too.

Aren’t people amazing? I’m still touched by their kindness.

Update on my son: My son’s disorientation was caused by the onset of schizophrenia. He fought his way out of it and has been troubled only once in the past six years by the disorder’s signature symptom, voices. In 2002, I moved my entire family from California to Missouri, where I own a home deep in the Missouri woodlands. The stress-free environment and idyllic surroundings have contributed to my son’s healing.

It brings to mind a lovely quote by Anne Frank:

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.”