Editor:
On a recent afternoon, I was at Peace Arch Hospital parking lot trying to pay for my parking and get into the hospital to visit a friend. But I had difficulties with the machine, which kept rejecting my credit cards. Meanwhile, beside me a woman was endlessly feeding nickels and dimes into her machine.
I was muttering, mostly to myself, something about my struggle with the credit cards, and that I needed to use coins but didn’t have enough.
Her response was immediate and heart-warming: she began handing coins to me, until between us, we had made up the required $3.50 for my hour, as well as the many dollars for her own parking fees.
I am not sure how I would have solved my problem without her help, and am extremely grateful. But as well as that I was just so touched by her incredible kindness and generosity towards a stranger when she clearly did not have a lot to spare.
I am not a young person but am still learning, and what I learned today was that there is still much kindness and warmth in this troubled world.
It seems that individual kindness is the greatest ambassador of peace and humanity there is when a small act of kindness has the potential to warm a heart and restore meaning.
Helen McFadden, Surrey
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Thank you to the kind soul who returned a cart full of paid purchases left in the parking lot to the customer service desk at Canadian Tire on Sunday, Dec. 15 at around 5 p.m. I would appreciate it if you would call me so that I can thank you personally, 604-536-8329.
Richard Konig, Surrey