PENNIES FROM HEAVEN; RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

          Living out in the boonies where the bear, the deer and other critters roam can be a touch lonely at times and one tends to look forward to the mailman's visit, see the plastic red arm attached to the mailbox raised up. signifying that the mail has arrived. Like most people, our mail usually consists of bills, advertising gimmicks and notices. However, occasionally we discover a letter (who writes letters anymore in this day and age) or a card celebrating a birthday, etc. Well...yesterday as the mailbox stood at attention beside the side of the road saluting with its plastic red arm, a card was delivered to our place. When Sarah brought it inside she said it was for me, and I, thinking it was a card sent by my sister, didn't think too much about it until she said, "There's no return address and the postmark is from Canterbury," our nearest postal service. Upon opening the envelope, I discovered a beautiful card and a hundred dollar bill. My first thought was, wow! Who would send me some money, but there was no signature, the card and money were from a mystery person. Of course I'm eye-balling the writing to see if I can recognize the cursive style lettering and although my mother's writing was similar, I knew it wasn't hers since she's been dead for over 25 years. As many of you know from reading my blog on a regular basis, I've been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum (and yes it's wrecking me), so I can only assume the mystery donor (because of the hand writing style, I suspect is a woman) sent some money to help with some of the unexpected expenses that crop up whenever a person becomes ill. The one thing I've noticed about the country life in comparison to the city life, people I barely know have been so kind to us, whereas the city folk, only a small yard and a fence separating us, were still strangers from the day we moved in till the day we moved away. Sarah used to run the cafe at the Woodstock Farmer's Market and when they discovered I had cancer, to our great surprise they took up a collection, which helped substantially when we had to move to St. John's for over a month of cancer treatments. I also received a beautiful quilt from the Debec's Tuesday Quilters' Club to help keep me warm over our long cold winter. And now this, a hundred bucks in a card from a mysterious donor, whom I'd like thank so much, your kindness is very appreciated. 

          And, speaking about helping us out financially, as these words were hitting the page, Sarah noticed the red arm on the mailbox was standing straight up. When she came back inside, besides a bill, she handed me a card from my brother, which isn't unusual until I opened it and discovered 6 post-dated cheques, a couple of the lines saying, "Well little brother, thought you could use a little stress free cash flow. Take the time to heal you can't rush that." Although my brother and I weren't brought up together, I've always been amazed how close we are - I love you bro!  Thinking about all this random kindness almost brings a tear to my eye, which reminds me of a morning while living in
Nanaimo, BC when I stopped in at the Jabberwocky Coffee Shop, ordered a coffee and a bran muffin, the girl at the till saying, "Your order was paid by an anonymous customer." Having no idea who would do such a thing, I looked around at the people sitting in the small cafe by the sea to see if I knew anyone but everyone in the coffee shop was a complete stranger - now how special is that?

          I'm always amazed that in this world filled with so much hatred, violence and destruction, there are people out there who are very kind and giving. And as odd as it seems, I've found that most people who would give you the shirt of their backs are the people who often have the least. I once met a congenial middle-aged Polish man in a Lethbridge bar who invited me to his home for supper. He had the friendliest, brightest red face and smile imaginable. You can imagine how surprised I was when we drove into his yard, the freezing snow drifting across the prairies in huge gusts, and parked in front of a small building about the size of a single garage. Upon entering, I noticed the dirt floor had be swept and was actually shiny and a small curtain had been suspended in front of a tiny bedroom that separated it from the rest of the house. His wife was quite heavy in comparison to his size and she wore a long braided pig tail, which reminded me of " Let down your hair Rapunzel. Rapunzel let down your hair." They had two small boys and a dog as well living inside this small but warm dwelling. Since I enjoyed playing with the dog, after eating a tasty spaghetti dinner, when I was about to leave, he told me I could take the dog home. Well...being alone then, having recently moved from Nanimo, I thought the dog might be good company, that is, until I saw the tears welling up in the boys' eyes. Until then, I thought they wanted to be rid of the dog, so I kindly said no. But imagine that, a dirt-poor man, almost a complete stranger, offering me a good meal and then the family's pet?

          It's easy for us to turn our eyes away from a panhandler sitting with a tin can in front of him but until you've walked in his moccasins, we really don't know what has brought them to this point. I often chuck them some money and I don't care if they buy booze or drugs with it, whatever gets them through the day, and besides, it's their money once it leaves my hand, they can do what they want with it...peace, eh! - Trip

My wife and I recently started up an Etsy Store a little while ago and if you'd like to check out our artistic creations just click on the link.