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People Loving People

Dec 13, 2013 | 9:31 AM

The courts of justice never lack for criminals. However, people who torture and kill children are not common at all.

Recently, though, newspapers have carried stories of men and women guilty of murdering innocent children. It is so hard to accept that some people can be so cruel to little kids. If you look the newspaper over again though, you will find that those people are outweighed by decent people doing good things.

Okay, newspapers are not the place to look for kindness, bravery or sacrifice. Those qualities don’t sell newspapers we all like to say. But, it’s out there. Decent people are everywhere.

Nelson Mandela is a giant example of that.

He sacrificed, strove against incredible odds and succeeded. He did the near impossible: brought South Africans to a place where they at least are side by side and someday, may believe and work for their nation side by side. He loved and was loved. It doesn’t get much better than that. Best of all, he gave people lasting hope and joy. He was not infallible but he understood and brought about incredible change. I hope he doesn’t become worshipped or ‘deified’, which would quickly destroy what he has accomplished. What he has accomplished is phenomenal.

On a local level, there are thousands of good people and I have met more than my fair share. I can’t list them all. My thanks to them, is in my passing on their acts of kindness to someone else.

Husband is very ill and has had major surgeries and procedures in Saskatoon hospitals over this year. Kindness has been everywhere. The nurses treat the patients like family. Visitors go out of their way to help others.

I slid into a snow bank and not a soft one either. A man stopped. The lady of the house where I was ‘more than parked’, came out with shovels. Students walking by stopped to help. CAA arrived as soon as they could and gave the car a boost, thank heaven. It was 30 below and I needed to run the car now and then to stay above freezing myself. A man named Randy – I have lost his last name – stopped, pulled the car out of the snow and followed me to a battery place and a gas station. He also gave me some good advice. Next time, don’t try to save a few bucks by not using the parking lot.

Another evening, I stopped at Midtown Mall to quickly buy some things at a pharmacy. The doors were already locked so someone let me out through The Bay. There was no going back inside. Would the machine for paying for parking take coins? No. It wanted bills. I didn’t have bills. A lady waiting for a ride handed me a five dollar bill and hurried away before I could get an address so I could pay her back.

I refuse to admit it was my fault, although it really was, but recently a wheel on the car got seriously wounded when I tried a sharp turn into the pass through at Affinity Credit Union at Cornerstone.

The manager invited me to use his phone to call CAA and meekly call Husband. Then he drove me home.

Now that is service way above and beyond what was really necessary for him to do.