March 17, 2011

"A SMALL TOKEN OF KINDNESS GOES A LONG WAY!"

As you probably know by now, my family faced our biggest challenge last year with my husband's life-threatening illness. In that time period, many of my "so-called" friends walked out of my life. One woman was my supposed "best friend" for the past 27 years, and she turned her back on me and walked away. However, there were a few people who stood by me and never turned their backs. Today, I gave one of those friends a token of my appreciation.

I had a job interview in the town where my friend lives. She lives nearly 45 minutes away from me, so we do not see each other on a regular basis. However, today I made up my mind that since I was going to be in her neck of the woods that I would stop in and visit  her. She was very grateful for my visit, because her husband just suffered from a heart attack last week, and I could tell she needed someone to talk to. Since my friend's birthday is next week, I decided to surprise her with a small gift. During one of my not-so-frequent shopping sprees to a craft store that was going out of business, I decided to stock up on gifts for special occasions. I put the items back for times just like this one.

My friend was surprised that I had brought her a gift for her birthday, because she knows how  my family has been struggling financially with all our medical bills. However, I wanted to show her how much her friendship means to me and to show her how grateful I am that she never left me during my time of need. My friend never expected a gift, because we do not see each other very often, but I enjoy seeing the smile on someone's face when I treat them to something they like. A small token of kindness goes a long way, and it shows others how much we truly care.