How Kindness Lives On
Acts of kindness are important. I really believe that. Just taking a moment to see if someone is ok, or needs any help.
Clearing a neighbour’s path of snow, helping a driver push a broken down car to the side of a road, carrying an elderly person’s tray in a cafe.
Simple things.
It doesn’t cost anything, and to be honest, it makes you feel good inside. And of course it can make a difference to someone’s day.
When I was a boy, a stranger did something kind for me that has stayed with me for decades.
I was very young, probably around three or four, and on holiday with my parents and brother in Paris.
Unfortunately, I’d locked myself in a hotel corridor toilet and couldn’t get out. I remember my parent’s worried voices through the door, telling me how I needed to unbolt the lock. Somehow it had locked itself and I could barely reach it.
After what seemed like an age, I got out of the toilet. My Mum hugged me, and behind her, I could see several people in the corridor, laughing at me. The trauma of being locked inside a room and their apparent glee made me cry.
That night, I went to bed with my favourite teddy who had only one blue eye.
