Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Perhaps forty years ago Sadie left her drunk and violent husband. Needing shelter for herself and her young son she took a job as a warden in a housing project for elderly people. It meant she could live "on site" in one of the flats.

Eventually, she got to know the residents. One resident, Archie, didn't have a family of his own but his nephew's wife and her kids would pop in from time to time. The nephew's wife was there to help the old guy but the kids were probably more of a nuisance than anything else. Still, they would visit and Archie would give them a few pennies for sweets whenever he could.

Sadie helped care for Archie as he battled illness and it was she who called the doctor who diagnosed his terminal cancer. She remembers him fondly as a sweet old man.

Time passed. Sadie's son grew up, got married and settled several hundred miles away. Sadie retired and settled into a nice little home of her own. To ease the loneliness she took in a series of dog shelter dogs over the years.

Her current dog, Muffin, is a cantankerous little terrier, always pulling at the end of his lead. So when a heavy fall of snow came a year and a half ago she was pleased when a neighbour offered to walk the dog; just until the weather improved, just so she wouldn't be pulled off her feet and break a bone.

Well, the snow and ice went - but the neighbour kept up his dog walks. And each day he would spend a while talking to her, seeing she was okay, checking if she needed anything.

Now, in her eighties, she is being looked after like she used to look after her "old dears."

But in all the time she's known him, Sadie never really thought to wonder what his last name was. This morning she asked. His surname was the same as old Archie's. It stirred a memory and she remarked on the coincidence. She told him about working at the old folks' flats - and was stunned to discover the man who had been "caring" for her for the past year and a half had been one of the little kids who used to tramp mud up and down the stairs she had to clean and ran screaming through the echoing corridors on his way to visit "Uncle Archie."

She had cared for his family, now he was caring for her. Neither of them knew it up until that moment but they were living proof of the old saying, "What goes around comes around," - and the circle of kindness will not be broken!