Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I have recently moved back home to live with my parents after having lived abroad for the last few years.  People are often surprised and ask me why I would want to move back and live with my parents after having lived away for so long.  My main reason is - My Mother who is My Kindness Champion. 

On any given day, one or more of the following might easily happen to me:

·     As I scramble around in my handbag in the morning, looking for my train ticket, I might find a small bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice (packed up very neatly to prevent leakages) in my handbag.  Or I may find some healthy snacks like dried fruit and nuts.  Or sometimes, I’ll find a sweet note.

·     If I’m running late and haven’t had time to grab breakfast, a cup of hot chocolate might magically appear by the front door for me to drink on the way to the train station.

·     Sometimes, I’ll curl up in bed at the end of the day only to find that my pillow is lumpy – my mum will have hidden a small present under my pillow.  A pair of cute earrings, a box of chocolates, clothes, stationery, a book … all sorts of wonderful things have found their way in to my bed!  The best part is that she’ll be hiding (agitatedly) outside the door to see what my reaction is when I find the hidden surprise.  On the odd occasion that I haven’t found it and gone straight to sleep – she’ll be sure to come and poke me herself ;-)

Of course, in the week approaching my birthday, this goes into overdrive! I find all sorts of wonderful gifts all over my bedroom for an entire week before my birthday. 

One of the things that my mum really enjoys is when she knows that all five of us are going to be home for dinner.  (In our household this happens rarely because of everyone’s work and social commitments.) She will often cook up a wonderfully extravagant meal, sometimes with 5 or 7 courses!  She’ll set the table with the best plates and decorate it with flowers and candles.  For a family of food lovers this is certainly a special treat!

She’s not just like this with us – she’s this way with everyone.  My cousins will often find things turning up at their house or my mum will often cook a little extra for our neighbours who love Indian food.  Sometimes, if my mum knows I’m meeting a friend for the day, two bottles of fresh orange juice will turn up in my handbag instead of one, or a small flower or some other small gift will turn up in my handbag marked with my friend’s name.

But my all time favourite thing about my mum and what truly makes her My Kindness Champion is this part of our morning ritual:

·     Despite my best efforts, I’m often running very late in the mornings, so my mum will say “I’ll drop you to the station, but only this once”.  As we pull out of our driveway, she starts looking out for people walking on the street who she thinks might be headed towards the station too.  When she finds some, she pulls over to them and asks them if they would like a ride to the station.  Now this is not as easy as it sounds because in London people generally don’t like being approached by strangers.  On top of that, I used to be a big protestor – “come on mum, you can’t just go up to strangers like that, this is London, they’re gonna think you’re weird…”  Of course I’m now converted and a big fan of this!  Sometimes (very rarely) people will look at us like we’re weird but most of the time we get the biggest smiles.  Sometimes even from the people who don’t need a ride!  People are so happy when we give them a ride (and quite often they’re relieved as they are usually running late as well).  We’ve met some great people this way too! 

So when people ask me why I live at home I just smile and think to myself “because I couldn’t be anywhere better”.