Kindness on the second anniversary of Aliyah’s death

To our community,

It’s been almost two years since Aliyah died. It’s hard to believe. There hasn’t been a day that we don’t long for our old life. We hold Aliyah in everything we do and imagine the parallel world with her in it.

Flooding the world with kindness on March 9th

Aliyah was a kind and incredibly insightful kid. She had a profound awareness of the world and wanted to do things to make it better. From small acts like making drawings for her friends to larger acts like saving her allowance to plant a million trees, Aliyah’s kindness was a thread throughout her short life. Aliyah cared deeply about people and showed her love through her actions.

The day Aliyah died, March 9, 2022, the world lost someone special. While nothing will ever make the pain of her dying go away, we have a hope that together as a community, we can again counterbalance some of that pain with a collective outpouring of love.

So, our wish for this March 9th (just as last year) is to honour Aliyah’s giving spirit: We wish for everyone who reads this to flood the world with kindness that day.

What this means is to find something that day that you can do for someone else, to help them, to deepen connection, to express your love, to just be kind. Here are some ideas of what you can plan to do:

• Buy or cook a meal for a person who might need one
• Connect with a lonely neighbour
• Donate blood — A blood drive is happening on March 6th in her honour
• Send a note of gratitude to people or maybe some local businesses
• Donate to a cause you care about and include a heartfelt note of encouragement
• Buy a cup of coffee for the next person in line
• Volunteer at a community organisation — for example, a long-term care centre or foodbank/soup kitchen/community food centre (note: these organisations generally do better with longer-term commitments, so perhaps this day can kickstart a few months of volunteering)
• Donate to Aliyah’s Fund https://torontofoundation.ca/aliyah-rotman-fund
• Donate to Sick Kids Hospital in memory of Aliyah https://fundraise.sickkidsfoundation.com/aliyah

Any idea of your own, small or large, is wonderful. Put a reminder in your calendar, get your whole family and friends involved.

Hundreds of people putting goodness into the world will mean a huge wave of love to honour Aliyah’s memory.

With love,

Sari and George