Stories of Kindness from Around the World

This story follows my previous story:

Last night, my daughter and I printed out Smile Cards and attached a note to each card saying 'Merry Christmas' and 'Have a Happy New Year'. We decided to turn the cards into part of the a neighborhood tag game. You must pass your card along to someone else in the neighborhood with a piece of paper wishing them Happy Holidays too..

We delivered the cards around our neighbourhood in the dark so no one would see us - it was so cold.. :) We gave out plenty of cards to our neighbors.

I was curious when I saw my neighbor run up my driveway today after her child got on her bus with a paper in her hand... It was one of our Smile Cards - we got one back!  This afternoon when I was checking my mailbox, our eldest neighbour, maybe around 80 years old, stopped at my mailbox with her friend.  She said, "Come here honey, I have something for you", and then she handed me one of our 'Smile Cards' and said "tag you're it". We got another one back! I just laughed and thanked her for the smile and wished her Happy Holidays. 

I continued talking with our elderly neighbour, she said she had one wish this Christmas, that she would to be able to cook for her family this year, but unfortunately, she could not afford the ham on her fixed income. I asked her if she could please come up to my house for a minute, I told her I had something for her.  I went in and took out a ham, a bag of potaoes and some cans of green beans, put them in a bag and gave them to her. She said, "I can't take this," but I insisted, "you tagged me, now here is me paying it forward, you can tag someone else because now you're it!" She laughed and smiled. I am lucky because I was blessed with a 'buy one ham get one free'.

It felt so good to help her. No matter how tough things are for so many people, including us. Imagine that just one small piece of paper from a game of neighbour hood tag could add up to so much. I know that when I sit to eat my Christmas dinner, she will be having hers with her family like she wanted and that is a good feeling.