Dear kind stranger

It has been a little over one-year since your random act of kindness and we want you to know that it carried us through the year 2020, a shining example of the power of kindness.

On January 4, 2020, we siblings took our elderly parents out for dinner at the Valley Hotel in Palmer. As we were having difficulty getting Dad from the car into his wheelchair, and you, with your young child in tow, offered to assist. After we go Dad safely into his chair, we gave you our thanks and that was the end of it, we thought. Later, when we asked for the dinner bill, we found out you had paid for it!

What you had no way of knowing, was prior to dinner we siblings acknowledged, between ourselves, that it was likely going to be the last time we were on a family outing together, considering our parents advanced age, health conditions, and that one of us lives Outside and rarely returns. When we found out you paid for dinner, we teared up.

As it turned out, it was indeed our last family adventure. Dad passed away just three weeks later. The pandemic prevented us from gathering to honor him and Mom spent most of the year alone in lock-down at her assisted living home, trying to evade the virus. In retrospect, there was a magic to the evening and you were part of it.

To have started the year 2020 with a mark of kindness, helped to raise our spirits and soothe our sorrow during the rest of the year and we look forward to 2021 with a deeper understanding of how just one kind gesture can offer exponential goodness.

With gratitude,

The Murray Family