I’m a UConn Husky fan and, being a social kind of guy, I visit a forum for other fans called the Boneyard. Upon my return home I announced to the Boneyard I was looking for stories of kindness in their communities. Instead, I got a reply from one Boneyarder describing a touching story of kindness abroad. I forgot to ask him if I could specifically use his name so I’m leaving that out.
I hope you will be as moved by the story below as I was. I hope as well that you might consider sharing your own touching story of kindness. You can do what this Boneyarder did, send me an email from which I cut and paste your story to here. Does the following story remind you of anything that once happened to you?
Three years ago, while my wife and I were on a vacation river cruise in Germany, I became seriously ill with an infection that required my hospitalization in Erlenbach for 12 days. Except for a couple of doctors, no one at the hospital spoke English and my wife was forced to find accommodations in a rooming house where no one spoke English. We confronted what I could only describe as a disaster!
And yet, during this time when my very survival was in question, my wife and I encountered “angels” who helped us even though they could barely understand us. When my wife asked the owners of the rooming house to call her a cab so that she could make the morning trek to the hospital, they refused and insisted that they would drive her. When she returned to her room on the first evening, the cab driver, claiming that he wanted to practice his English, took her under his wing, drove her home each night of our stay in Erlenbach, and also drove her to an ATM each night so that she could make necessary withdrawals. While she was shopping, she encountered several English speaking Germans who volunteered to help her and even gave her their telephone numbers.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, nurses who could not speak English extended kindness after kindness to me. Even the doctors were kind both to me and my wife.
When it was time to leave the hospital for the Frankfurt airport, our resourceful cab driver drove us to the airport and would only accept half his usual fare. At the airport hotel, we encountered a porter who, recognizing that I was ill, told me to go to bed and took my wife to an area of the airport where airlines sold discounted tickets for transatlantic flights and negotiated our air fare with Aer Lingus. He arranged for our transportation to the Aer Lingus terminal, and got us priority position at the ticket counter. While I ultimately gave him a generous tip, his kindness to us was beyond compensation.
I mentioned earlier that I developed an infection. The infection was in a leg where I had had a knee replaced. The German doctors wanted my medical records and my wife contacted my orthopedic physician in Hartford for the records. He not only sent the records, but also telephoned my wife every day during my hospitalization to ascertain my status. Again, this was totally unexpected – he was just being a nice guy.
This entire experience was a life changer for me. To be in a time of great physical and emotional distress and to have person after person extend unanticipated kindnesses to us made us appreciate that there are indeed angels in each of us. It caused me to understand that people are inherently good and kind. My life has been irrevocably changed by encountering so many “Good Samaritans.”
That is my “kindness” story. I think that it confirms what you are doing. Keep it going.
